To Me from 2000 Years Ago
by Crimson Knights
Summary: She felt herself relax upon his touch and tears began welling up in her eyes. She had so many things to tell him. Her chest was hurting so much that it felt like it was going to burst and let all those words pour out. But she was refraining herself because she did not know what they were. They were foreign, yet so familiar. The only word that escaped her dry lips was... his name.
1. Chapter 1

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

 **Note(s):**

1) Any familiar or similar events in this story are not related to any real life people or events at all. They are purely coincidental.

2) May contain some spoilers from the manga. Anything that does not appear in the manga is obviously made up.

3) Main pairings are entirely crack [ErenXSasha] & [SashaXLevi]. If you don't like crack pairings, please don't read on any further than this and drop flames to these pairings in the review section. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions but I believe in respecting what the authors ship. If you don't mind reading crack pairings (or love them -yay-), please feel free to read on. :)

4) The build-up romance of this story is slow paced, so please do not expect the characters to get together quickly. You may see crushes, admirations, or one-sided love along the way.

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either Shingeki no Kyojin or its characters, except for this story plot.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Life is so short. She knew that fighting those man-eating giants involved a very huge risk. No gain could be expected. Not like anybody would remember the names of their lost comrades as time passed, except for those who personally knew them. However, she had chosen to put her life on the line and fight for humanity as a soldier. It was her personal choice despite the countless discouragements from her father who advised her to just stay as a hunter and accept things as they were.

She had seen many gruesome deaths of innocent citizens and her dear comrades caused by those evil giants. The first few deaths she had witnessed bothered her so much that they became her constant nightmares that plagued her for days. Before she knew it, her heart had already hardened to the point that although it still hurt upon seeing deaths, it did not exactly haunt her in her sleep anymore. Simply say, she was immune to witnessing death.

As she stared at the clear blue sky with heavy eyelids which were threatening to close at any moment, she smiled bitterly to herself. She knew that the chance of dying as a soldier was very high, yet she chose to go down this route despite the risk. But deep inside her, she did not want to die. At the very least, not like this...

She could not feel her limbs anymore. She was not sure if they were still intact to her body. Her face felt sticky, drenched with her sweat and blood. Her back was lying against a pile of debris while her damaged gear was resting on her broken ribs. At this moment, she knew that she was going to die. She might have a near-escape earlier, injuring herself in the process, but she would not be able to save herself anymore due to the vulnerable state she was currently in. Being eaten or not, it did not exactly matter to her anymore since she was going to die anyway. She wanted to see her father before she closed her eyes forever. She had missed him so much. She wanted to ask him if he had ever felt proud of his only daughter for being a soldier, and also for being the only girl from their village to ever be a soldier. She wanted to tell him one last time that she had never once regretted her decision to become a soldier.

Her eyes finally closed as her staggered breath began slowing down. She felt herself losing consciousness, hearing nothing of her surroundings except for her own slowed and small breathings. Just then, something shook her body hard and a familiar male voice shouted her name repeatedly. His voice was ringing so loudly in her ears that her consciousness was pulled back in. Opening her eyes slightly, she could vaguely see whoever was in front of her vision. Everything looked so blurry, so the only thing she could tell was a figure with messy black hair leaning close to her left side. His face was so close to hers, yet she could not see his features clearly. But she knew who he was right away.

"I'm sorry. I came too late. Don't go, please. I'm sorry..." she heard him cry. "Remember you told me yesterday? That you will take everyone to the best restaurant in town to try the best grilled meat after this mission?"

Yes, she remembered. But she was sorry that she could not keep this promise after all.

"You promised, Sasha! So, please, don't go."

She thought she would die without regrets. But how wrong she was. There were so many things she wanted to tell him too, however, she was too weak to say anything. She wished she had told him all those things earlier, had she known that she would not be making through this mission. The only thing she could do was to stare at the blurry face that she wished she could have a better view before her eyes closed for the final time. Those words were stuck in her throat and could never reach him anymore. Words that left unspoken would only follow her to the grave.

Most importantly, above everything else, she wanted to say 'I love you'.

-:-:-:-

 _I love you..._

Sasha's eyes flew open, finding herself staring straight at a white ceiling. The stinging pain in her chest slowly faded away while she could feel her limbs rubbing against the cotton fabric of the mattress that she was lying on. Her breathing was rapid and heavy, as if she was catching up on her lost breaths earlier. Carefully, she used her arms to push her upwards to a sitting position, letting her hair fall all over her face which was covered with droplets of perspiration. Even as something liquid rolled down her cheeks from the corner of her eyes, she could not tell if they were her tears or sweat.

She brought her hand to her forehead and brushed her hair upwards to get rid of the strands of hair that were sticking on her forehead and the side of her face. Glancing around her room, a wave of relief came upon her. Everything was a dream. A nightmare, to be accurate. But it felt so real. The feeling of the pain coursing throughout her body and the rough debris beneath her felt so real to be only a dream. She felt like she had experienced this before, like déjà vu. Truth to be told, there was no way man-eating giants could ever exist. Not in this era. Not anymore. They were myths and legends that were passed down for centuries. Although she had no memory of the promise to take everyone to the best restaurant to try out the best grilled meat, it felt so natural at that moment as if she had really promised them. In the first place, who was everyone? She felt like she knew them, yet did not know them at the same time.

She could still hear the male's voice ringing in her head. Again, she did not know who he was but her heart had ached upon seeing his figure. At that moment when he had held her close to him, she felt like she had known him for a long time and had happy memories of him. In reality, she held no memories of him when she started to rack through her brain if she had ever come across this man. She knew nothing about this male, except for an emotional connection with him at that final moment of her nightmare. How could she be in love with an unknown man in her dream? It was absurd!

"Sasha!"

Hand dropping to her side, she glanced towards the door which was suddenly flung open. There stood an anxious looking blonde girl and a bored looking dark-haired girl behind the blonde. Still feeling a little disorientated by her nightmare, Sasha stared blankly at the two ladies.

Then, the blonde said, "Why are you still on the bed?! We have to get ready to leave soon!"

Ah, she remembered that she was planning to take a 10-minute nap. But it turned out that she had _over-napped_ by another 15 minutes. Though the nap was short – a 25-minute nap was considered short to Sasha, the dream felt like it had been an hour of fighting giants and lying on the ground injured, waiting to die.

"Look at you. You need to wash up," the tall dark-haired girl muttered with a hint of disgust in her voice. "What made you perspire so... I can even see your bra straps through that drenched T-shirt of yours."

"Ymir!" the blonde tried to silence the girl standing behind her.

"I... I had a nightmare..." Sasha said weakly, averting her eyes from the girls. "It's already the sixth time I have this nightmare."

"That nightmare?" the blonde, named Krista, blurted in surprise but soon furrowed her eyebrows worriedly. "I see. If you are not feeling well now, you don't have to go, you know. Ymir and I can help you to come up with some excuses..."

"I'm fine, Krista! Thanks!" Sasha interrupted the blonde as she stumbled out of bed. "I'm going to wash up real quick. Please give me a few minutes!"

"If you say so..."

"Be quick. You know that I have no patience," Ymir said before walking away.

Krista gave a quick glare behind her friend's back before turning her attention back to Sasha.

"Don't mind, Ymir. She's feeling grumpy today because Connie had forgotten to return her her notes needed for today's tutorial."

Sasha glanced back at Krista and chuckled softly. "As usual, that idiot."

"You smiled. Thank goodness," Krista said, feeling a little relief that Sasha had finally calmed down a little. "It's okay to be a few minutes late. I bet some others will be late as well."

"I'm sorry, Krista," Sasha said apologetically as she quickly made her way to her wardrobe. "I better be quick before Ymir gets mad at me too."

"Nah, you know her, she won't!" Krista assured with a bright grin. "Hey, Sasha..."

Sasha's hand rested on the wooden handle, pulling the door slightly, as she turned to look at her blonde friend quizzically. Krista looked troubled for a moment, breaking her eye contact with Sasha, like she was trying to find appropriate words to say to the brunette. Her hands were also clasping together tightly against her chest. Finally, her hands let go of each other and she stared at Sasha with a small smile and knitted eyebrows.

"I don't know what kind of nightmare you have... but... if you want to..." Krista spoke in a softer voice. "You can speak to me about it. Maybe... I can help you... I don't know if I can help, but I heard that speaking about your troubles can lighten your burden and all..."

A warm feeling spread across Sasha's chest upon hearing those words. She was happy that her friend wanted to be there for her. But that recurring nightmare was plain stupid to talk about. Ymir would definitely laugh at her for having a good imagination. Not wanting to worry her blonde friend any further, Sasha returned a big smile like she had always put on and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Sure. Thank you, Krista."

Krista's facial features brightened up instantly at her gesture, and she replied cheerfully, "No problem! We are friends, aren't we?"

-:-:-:-

Sasha was quick as promised. She took a quick shower, hitting her best record of two minutes in the bathroom. She rushed out of her room in a yellow v-neck long-sleeved blouse and a long brown skirt that covered three-quarter of her legs, and also with her small backpack which she had always carried to her classes. Her long hazel-brown hair was still wet but was already straightened with a comb. She estimated that her hair would dry a little by the time they walked to the campus foyer from their dormitory.

Sasha headed to the common room where Ymir and Krista were waiting for her. Ymir and Krista were sitting next to each other on a couch and talking about something to each other, but she could not really hear them as they were speaking so softly. They were not aware of her presence even as she strolled towards them from behind. Despite knowing that it would be so rude to interrupt their conversation, Sasha decided to capture their attention by raising her voice in an excited manner and pretending that she did not know that they were having a conversation.

"Sorry for the wait! Hope you didn't wait too long!" Sasha chimed, knowing that Ymir would rebut her sarcastically as usual.

The girls jumped a little and immediately turned their heads towards Sasha's direction. Then, Ymir rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"Oh, we sure waited very long, princess."

"No, we didn't! Sasha was so fast!" Krista argued. "Let's head out now, shall we? Armin just texted me, saying that almost half of our course mates have arrived."

"Ah, wait! I need to grab some food. We can feast on the bus!" Sasha suggested happily as she started to imagine herself spoiling her stomach with potato chips and cheese bread during the long, boring bus journey.

Food made Sasha happy. And it would always will.

Before she could have the chance to step into the pantry to hunt for food, Ymir wrapped her arm around hers and forcefully pulled her towards the foyer while Krista followed them behind.

"We have no time, girl."

"Sasha, free dinner will be provided," Krista kindly reminded. "Besides, no eating on the excursion bus."

"Oh yeah, free food!" Sasha shook Ymir's arm off and faced Krista with a look of excitement like that of a happy child looking forward to receiving presents. "I can't wait!"

"Yeah, yeah, you little glutton. Get your ass ready to leave the house now and stop talking already!" Ymir chided and pulled Sasha by her arm again.

Finally, the three girls stepped out of their dormitory and headed towards the direction of their campus. Upon arriving at the foyer, they were immediately greeted by Connie Springer, Sasha's best friend since elementary school, who came running towards them as soon as he spotted them.

"Ymir, I swear that I will bring the notes tomorrow!" Connie held three fingers next to his ear with a serious look on his face. "I won't forget this time."

Ymir rubbed her chin doubtfully. "Oh yeah? Why didn't you bring it along with you this time since you are meeting me again today?"

"I forgot that I am meeting you again for this field trip. Please forgive me."

The three girls stared at him in disbelief. How could he say that bluntly with a straight face?

Sasha felt a nudge on her arm as Ymir leant closer and pretended to whisper into her ear, "Sasha, if you can, please help me to remind this idiot to bring my notes tomorrow. I can't and don't believe him."

"Hey, I can hear you!" Connie grunted with a frown.

"Guys!" another voice interrupted the four of them, causing them to turn their heads towards the source.

A boy with blonde hair and deep blue eyes waved at them, signalling them to join in the crowd of students gathering next to the excursion buses. Krista waved back with a smile and a nod before turning back to look at her friends.

"Let's join Armin and the others," she said.

"Your cousin's pals aren't with him today," Connie stated thoughtfully. "I thought he wouldn't come along too if they didn't attend."

"Armin is not my cousin, Connie!" the blonde girl snapped.

"He still somewhat is, right? I mean, he's the son of your mother's cousin."

"Distant cousins, is that what others should call you and Armin?" Sasha wondered aloud.

The tall dark-haired girl lightly dropped her fists on both Sasha head and Connie's heads and said impatiently, "Enough, you two. We should hurry and get up the bus. I want to get the best seat."

"The four of us should get the four seats at the back," Krista suggested to Ymir.

"As you wish." Ymir grinned as she put her arm around Krista's shoulders and began walking towards the buses, pulling Krista along. "Let me take the inner seat, okay? I want to look at the scenery outside."

Sasha and Connie briefly glanced at each other with sheepish smiles before following their two friends up the bus.

-:-:-:-

When everyone had arrived at the destination after an hour bus journey from school, Professor Keith Shadis made his students gather outside of the large building which looked almost like a chapel from the outside, except that it was five-storey tall. The bottom part of the building looked old judging from the thick moss growing on the brown-dirt walls while the upper part looked like it was an extension to the building as it looked newer... Again, judging by the slightly whiter paint of the walls although patches of moss could be clearly seen as well. A sign board with the words ' _Welcome to the National Titan Museum_ ' engraved onto it was hung at the glass entrance door. Every student tried to steal a peek inside the museum through the glass door but it was so dimmed and dark inside that they could not see anything, except for a human figure walking around.

Sasha was not sure if she was excited about this field trip or not. It would be her first time visiting a museum about titans. She had heard about titans through stories when she was a child. Some stories wrote about titans being extremely big warriors that protected the land. Some stories described titans as giant man-eating monsters like those from her nightmares. She was not exactly sure if those giants that she had dreamt of were titans because she had never seen a real titan before. Well, except in drawings. Picture storybooks depicted them either giant warriors with armour and beard or giant demons with curled horns and sharp fangs. If she was to compare the drawn pictures with the creatures in her nightmares, they looked totally different. Although she could vaguely recall how they looked like in her dreams, one word which she would describe them other than being giant was 'humanoid'. Over the years, many people said that titans were just legends or fairy tales as there was no proof that they had ever existed. Others, especially historians, rebutted this claim and immersed themselves in finding proofs for many years. The government funded their research and built a small museum where small artefacts found relating to the existence of titans were displayed and seminars of 'proven' hypothetical studies about titans were conducted.

Just then, Professor Shadis cleared his throat loudly, instantly grabbing the students' attention. Through experience, it was not good to let this professor wait too long for them to settle down. He had a terrible temper and would not hesitate to deduct their class participation marks on the spot. His motto was "one for all, all for one"; one person disobeys, everyone gets the punishment equally.

"As part of your module requirement, all of you have to write an individual reflection journal about this field trip to the National Titan Museum. As social science and humanities college students, all of you are encouraged to use your critical thinking and analytical skills while observing the artefacts. Although the reflection journal is not compulsory because it does not hold any weightage in this module, just to let you know that your 20% class participation marks also depend on this field trip and reflection journal," Professor Shadis said with his usually stern face. "I'm expecting good reflections from all of you. Anyway..."

He cleared his throat again.

"No touching of artefacts. Don't run around like little kids or else, I shall treat you like one. Don't talk too loudly. If you ever disgrace yourself and someone asks you which school you are from, say that you are an uneducated person with no manners. We don't want to be disgraced by you."

Sasha bit her lips to hold back a laugh. For some reason, it sounded humorous to her even though she knew it was not meant to be funny at all. However, unknown to her, her 'constipated' face did not go unnoticed by her professor at the front.

"Sasha Braus! What's so funny?!"

"Eh!" the brunette yelped, flabbergasted that her name was called out all of a sudden.

She covered her mouth in response and glanced around, seeing that everyone was already staring at her. A light pink blush nevertheless rose up to her cheeks as she felt herself being tongue-tied and embarrassed by those stares.

"Sasha is having stomach cramps because she ate too much just now," a monotone female voice was heard from behind Sasha.

"Again?" Professor Shadis mused aloud, shaking his head in feigned astonishment. "Please learn controlled eating, Braus."

 _What do you mean by 'again', Professor?! I don't get stomach cramps from eating! Eating is my remedy for stomach cramps!_ Sasha mentally screamed. She could feel herself becoming more embarrassed than before. She wished that the ground beneath her feet would swallow her whole and she would hide underground for the rest of her life. As she mentally cried to herself, she turned her head slightly, wanting to catch a glimpse of the girl who had further embarrassed her with the possible intention to save her from being scolded by Professor Shadis.

The girl she saw behind her was…

"Mi-Mikasa?" she greeted her 'saviour' in surprise. "Since when? I didn't see you on the bus. I heard… you weren't coming."

"Who says so?" the girl with jet-black medium length bob asked without a hint of emotion on her face. "Besides, you owe me one."

Sasha frowned, lowering her voice as she retorted Mikasa, "I don't know if I really owe you this one since you made me so embarrassed."

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at her. Before she could say something, the glass door was opened and a bespectacled female in a lab coat emerged from the dark. She greeted the students enthusiastically and suggested everyone to call her Dr Hange before telling everyone to make their way into the museum. After the students had streamed into the dimly-lit foyer of the museum, Dr Hange began her educational talk about her interesting findings of titan-related artefacts and some historical events which Sasha and some others found boring. The foyer had nothing to see either. Sasha wrapped her arms around Krista's left arm and leant tiredly against her shorter friend. If only she could sit down, she could have just fallen asleep on Krista's shoulder like always in lecture halls.

Fifteen minutes had passed, and Dr Hange had not stopped talking. One could really tell that this historian-scientist was really passionate about her works. Armin who was originally standing at the front with another boy, seeming to be interested in her talk, began moving away to the back and heading towards Sasha's and her friends' direction. The taller boy who was with him silently trailed behind, looking fairly bored too. Since the room was dark, their movements were not really noticeable.

"Mikasa," Armin called out softly to the girl, who was all along standing quietly next to Sasha, when he and the taller boy finally joined them.

"Armin... Jean?"

"I thought you weren't coming?" Armin said in a rather questioning manner.

"Who said so?"

"Uh… Eren said he couldn't make it today because he has a tutorial session for one of his extra modules. So, I thought you wouldn't come along too since he's not here."

"We took a cab here," Mikasa stated.

Armin chuckled and patted Mikasa's shoulder. "Oh, I'm glad you came on time then… Wait… by 'we', do you mean…?"

Sasha, Ymir, Krista, Connie and the taller boy whose name was Jean glanced at the pair with widened eyes too.

"Where is he now? I don't see him," Ymir queried.

Mikasa adjusted her red scarf upwards, covering the lower portion of her face, as her eyes darkened. "He went to a public toilet because he was having stomach cramps on the way here."

"Oh my gosh, seriously?" Connie exclaimed, trying his best to stifle a laugh. "Now I get why you used that stomach cramps excuse. It was so random, I swear."

Jean smirked at his comment. "But Shadis bought it. In the end, Sasha's ass was saved by Almighty Mikasa."

"Shut up, Horse-faced!" Sasha hissed, baring her teeth at Jean.

"What did you call me, Potato-girl?!"

"Jean, Sasha, calm down!" Krista pulled Sasha behind her and stood between the two. "Why can't you two get along for once?"

Sasha scoffed and looked away with an angry pout. On the other hand, Jean crossed his arms and turned his back towards Krista and Sasha. It all started on the first day of college when they had their orientation; their meeting did not start out very well, obviously. Jean and Sasha were paired up in one of the orientation games in which one person from each pair had to carry his or her partner towards the finishing line to select one food option for a cooking contest that would be conducted after that pair-carrying game. The fastest pair would get to select the best food option while the slowest pair would have no choice but to choose the remaining food. Jean was strong and he could piggyback Sasha to the finishing line without a problem, coming in second place after Mikasa-Eren pair. But the problem started when they had to choose the food. Sasha wanted potatoes because she believed that potatoes could produce a variety of dishes, ranging from baked potato, fries, mashed potato to hashbrown. On the other hand, Jean wanted eggs because he wanted their group to win with his family restaurant's famous omelette rice dish. Hence, because of their stubbornness and differences, they bickered non-stop and had no choice but to take the remaining food option as the other pairs had chosen theirs. The remaining food option was a pickle. From that day onwards, Jean and Sasha never talked 'nicely' to each other again.

"Say, do you think Eren knows how to get here? The public toilet isn't very far, right?" Connie wondered aloud.

"I think he knows," Mikasa replied.

"Maybe someone should get him."

"Connie, why don't you go since you suggested it?" Ymir said.

"Huh? I don't know where the public toilet is," Connie immediately answered and glanced up at Jean. "Do you know?"

"Nope. First time here."

Armin raised up his hand a little, capturing the attention of his friends. "I know..."

"Sasha will go!" Krista chimed, tugging Sasha's blouse frantically.

Sasha turned to her friend with a horrified look, only to receive a quick suggestive look from her that went unnoticed by others. What was Krista trying to do? There was no way she would 'fetch' Eren from the public toilet. It was not like she was close to him too. They only talked a little. The only times they had full conversations, if those were even counted as 'full conversations', when they were having exam-prep sessions and group project discussions together. Eren would definitely see her as a creep if he spotted her outside of the public toilet waiting for him. And she did not want Eren to see her that way...

Brushing her train of thoughts away, the brunette shook her head and pointed at Armin, shouting, "Armin! Armin says he knows!"

Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands clamped the sides of her head. Instantly, she knew what was going on without having to look at the source behind her, and she began trembling profusely. She was so dead. Professor Shadis had caught her talking a little too loudly. Her friends were looking at her, and probably also at the professor, horrified.

"Sasha Braus, are your stomach cramps so bad that you have to shout in the museum?"

Sasha closed her eyes and squeaked, "N-N-No, Sir."

"Then?"

"I'm sorry, S-Sir!"

"Learn to control your volume too, Braus." Then, the professor released her head and glared at the others. "Don't think I can't hear you brats talking from afar. Pay attention to Dr Hange."

The professor let out a loud and gruff 'hn' as he walked away from them, mumbling words like if he should make this field trip as part of his examination content so that more students would pay more attention, so on and so forth. Feeling relieved that she was spared another time round, Sasha squatted and hid her heated face behind her covered knees. Why wasn't she embarrassed enough? She really wanted to be eaten up by the ground, or maybe a titan if it even existed.

In the end, with the permission of Professor Shadis, Armin went to look for Eren.

-:-:-:-

What seemed like ages finally came to a stop when Dr Hange decided to bring the students around the museum galleries. To make things easier and manageable, the students were told to split into four groups led by four of Dr Hange's assistants; so each group would visit one of the four galleries for at least fifteen minutes before swapping rooms. The first room Sasha's group visited was about the weapons and machines used to fight with titans. The artefacts looked so old and looked like they would fall apart in the display glass any moment. A thick layer of rust was seen covering the metal areas of the displayed gear which looked so familiar to Sasha. She felt like she had seen it somewhere before, but just could not recall where she did.

The second room she visited was the clothes gallery. A ragged brown jacket with a weird grey logo on the top of the sleeves, a pair of greyish-white pants with brown spots, dirty dark brown boots, and a few capes with different logos were displayed behind a glass panel. The assistant was talking about how each logo represented different military sections and what the roles of the soldiers were in their respective sections. Everything was hypothetical, even the assistant admitted that whatever he had just said was just speculations.

The third room was about titans. Dr Hange had created a five-metre titan sculpture for display to give visitors an idea about how titans would look like based on some written artefacts that she had collected. Different from what storybooks had depicted, the titan sculpture was more human-like… and scarier. Partly because it looked so human, yet not-so-human at the same time. Furthermore, the titan sculpture was grinning down at the students with eyes of a predator. Some students requested to leave the room because they felt uneasy being in the same room as that grinning giant sculpture. As for Sasha, she feared that sculpture. Almost immediately when she saw that sculpture, she was paralysed. Her eyes were fixated on the mischievous eyes of the titan. Her hands felt cold and clammy all of a sudden as she felt her stomach clench in disgust. Cries of terror in different voices rang through her ears, as if she was on a battlefield at that moment. The male voice which desperately cried out her name also echoed in her head, as if she was going to die. As if she was going to be eaten by that titan.

"Sasha!"

She felt her head spinning. She could hear voices. Even the male voice felt so real to her now. She wanted to throw up too but was trying her best to hold everything in. It was a good thing that she did not bring any food to eat on the bus or else, she would have thrown up right there and then.

"Sasha!"

 _Don't go, please!_

"Sasha!"

 _I'm sorry. I came too late…_

"Sasha!"

 _I love you…_

"Sasha, are you all right?" A warm hand rested on her shoulder, bringing her back to reality. "You look pale."

The brunette shifted her gaze from the titan's eyes towards the person who was touching her shoulder. Her brown eyes met a pair of dark green ones. Her breathing paused for a moment as she continued to stare wide-eyed at the clueless male whose hand was still resting on her shoulder. She did not know what came over her but she felt herself relax upon his touch and tears began welling up in her eyes. She had so many things to say to him, but those words were trapped inside her throat. Her chest was hurting so much that it felt like it was going to burst and let all those words pour out. But she was refraining herself because of those words… S _he did not know what they were_.

They were foreign, yet so familiar.

The only word that escaped her dry lips was...

"E-Eren..."

* * *

 **Hi! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my very first SnK fanfic "To Me from 2000 Years Ago"! I was actually inspired by the first chapter title of the Snk manga if you have noticed the similarity in our titles. I noticed that there aren't many SashaxEren and SashaxLevi fanfictions in this forum. Most of them are published quite long ago. So, I thought that I could contribute a little to these pairings. I was quite hesitant to write both pairings into a fanfic at first, but I later decided to make them into a love triangle. But ultimately, Sasha has to choose either one of them. Hmm... I wonder who... XD**

 **It will be great if you guys can tell me how the first chapter has gone so far! I don't mind criticisms but they have to be constructive.**

 **See you all in the next chapter! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

"Dr Hange."

The scientist pushed her glasses upwards as she turned to face the two students who were standing next to a small photo frame hanging on the wall. The photograph depicted a blurry black-and-white image of a man with messy wavy hair that was around shoulder-length and a pair of spectacles hooking on the chest pocket of his coat. Beneath the photo was the name of the man and a short description of him.

Hange Zoë _  
14th Survey Corps Commander  
A highly intelligent commander, well-respected for his discovery of the true nature of titans.  
Unfortunately, his documentations were destroyed during the First Regional War in year 972.  
Dates of birth and death were unknown._

"Is it just me or that you have the same name as this dude here?" Jean asked while pointing at the photo.

"Good question!" Hange responded with a big grin. "Apparently, I heard that my grandfather wanted to name his son after this famous commander because he believed that intelligence was associated with this name."

"So, your dad is also named Hange Zoë?" the boy beside Jean asked, amused.

"Ah, no, no! I haven't finished talking yet," Hange said. "My grandmother disagreed with the name and gave another name to my father. Then, when I was born, my grandfather insisted on calling me Hange. My parents agreed. My grandmother disagreed but since it was three against one, she had to agree."

The boy next to Jean smiled at Hange, and commented politely, "Well, I bet you are very intelligent like Commander Hange. Look at all these findings you have gathered. Maybe one day, you can gather all the lost documentations and piece everything together."

"Marco, the documentations were destroyed. There is no way Dr Hange can find them anymore," Jean reminded his friend.

"Who knows?" the scientist interjected, adjusting her spectacles again with a smirk. "My goal is to find out everything about titans before I die. If not, I will pass on my legacy to my assistants. Hopefully, they will fulfil my goal."

Jean let out a soft 'hmm' as he scanned the interior of the fourth gallery. The fourth gallery " _Notable Soldiers Gallery_ " featured people whom Dr Hange had believed to be part of the military fighting against the titans, and people who played a huge part in getting rid of the titans. One of those people whose face captured Jean's attention was a painting of a beautiful girl with deep blue eyes and golden hair which was tied up in a bun. A yellow gradient effect was painted around her head, making her head look as if it was shining like a goddess.

"That is a painting of Queen Historia Reiss. The last queen of Shiganshina, and the last member of the Royal Reiss family," Hange explained after noticing Jean's intrigue stare at the painting. "Using her power, she reformed the government and supported the military. Writings about her mentioned that she was a kind and intelligent queen who was loved by her people."

"Then, what about this grumpy looking guy with a terrible undercut hairstyle?" Jean pointed at another painted portrait which was featured next to Queen Historia.

Hange walked towards the portrait and took a long look at the painting. She seemed uncertain, based on how she frowned at the painting and rubbed her chin as if she was in deep thoughts. After a short silence, Hange glanced at the two boys and smiled sheepishly.

"Nothing much is known about him, but there were some writings that mentioned about an Ackerman who was known as the Humanity's Strongest Soldier. Honestly, I don't know if this grumpy dude here was actually that Ackerman, but I have this hunch that he was."

"Why?" Marco asked in puzzlement.

"Actually, I don't know. An intuition, perhaps? I need more evidence. Moreover, this portrait was found together with another soldier's portrait..." Hange pointed at a photo frame which was located at another corner of the gallery near the entrance.

As if on cue, the entrance door swung open. Then, a girl with long hazel brown hair rushed in, closing the door behind her forcefully. Everyone in the fourth gallery looked at her questionably while Jean sighed, not sure if he should feel embarrassed by this girl's sudden interruption of another group's gallery observation. If he was not wrong, she should be in Mikasa's group. Knowing this girl, she would definitely be mentally dying of embarrassment again because she did not like to be in the centre of attention.

"I-I-I am very s-sorry!" she stammered.

Something was not right, Jean thought to himself. Her voice was weak and cracking, as if she was trying to hold back a sob.

"Sasha, come and join us," Marco invited Sasha as he signalled her to come closer to the pair.

"I..."

"Sasha, is it?" Hange laughed, easing the sudden tension in the gallery. "Why stand there? Come here, sweetie."

However, Sasha continued to stand by the entrance. The other students were beginning to divert their attention back to the artefacts and photos on the wall, totally ignoring Sasha's presence. Everything seemed to return back to normal to how it was before.

"Potato-girl, are you so afraid of the titans that you piss yourself?" Jean teased.

"You!" Sasha mouthed angrily while pointing accusingly at the tall male.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw a charcoal-sketched portrait of a young woman in a powerful stance with a bow and arrow in her arms. Her hair was tied back in a high ponytail and her attire looked similar to the uniforms Sasha had just seen in the second gallery. The woman looked fearsome, and her eyes showed an intense amount of concentration just like a hunter. The drawing was not the best as compared to the other portraits in the gallery, but she could tell that the artist who sketched this young woman held her close in his or her heart. There were yellow uneven spots near the bottom of the picture, which reminded Sasha of those patterns that formed after her tears on a piece of paper had dried up. Furthermore, there were some handwritten cursive words written at the bottom of the picture, but was already faded. What left were the greyish impressions which created by writing those words very hard against the paper.

 _To Alexandra of Dauper, a true hunter.  
Our promise.  
May we meet again._

"Hey, come to think of it, Sasha plays archery, right?"

Sasha flinched. She turned around and came face-to-face with Marco who came over to her while she was staring intensely at the girl's portrait. The brunette nodded silently at his question.

"Ah, the similarity," Marco added with a warm smile. "Hange said that this portrait was found together with another soldier's portrait."

He pointed towards the direction of another far end of the gallery where Hange and Jean were at.

"Oh, is it?" she muttered softly, not feeling interested to walk around anymore. "That's… kinda cool."

"Want to join me and Jean?"

Sasha shook her head and rejected the offer politely, "No, thanks. I want to be alone for awhile. I will join you when I am ready."

"Sure. See you later," Marco said and then left Sasha to look at other artefacts.

When Sasha was finally alone again, she returned her gaze back to the portrait of that female hunter, feeling a little down.

-:-:-:-

"Many of you left the titan gallery. I'm not surprised," Professor Shadis muttered to himself, brushing his little beard downward as he stared down at Connie, Krista and Ymir. "Such wimps."

"But the sculpture is very scary!" Krista retorted.

Ymir shrugged. "I followed Krista."

"I don't like that titan's face. It looks like it is making fun of me," Connie blurted a random excuse that came into his mind instantly.

"At least, Sasha seems to be holding up well. I didn't know she has that in her all these while," Ymir joked.

"At least, Braus is not a wimp," Professor Shadis interjected.

Connie laughed at that comment and added, "She was staring intensely at that titan when I last saw her just now."

"Such passion, I see." The professor smirked, still brushing his beard. "I would expect good analysis in her reflection journal then."

Just then, Armin walked out of the clothes gallery with a notebook and pen in his hand. A taller boy with slightly tanned skin and dark green eyes trailed behind him with both of his hands tucked inside the side-pockets of his jeans. Armin was flipping through his notebook, scanning through his handwritten notes which he had jotted down during his quick gallery observation. As he had gone to fetch Eren from the public toilet, both he and Eren were somewhat late for the observations and had to randomly hop from one gallery to another quickly to have a brief experience in the gallery. Basically, they were groupless.

"Eren, Armin!" Connie greeted and waved to the pair.

Armin looked up and waved back. "Hi."

"Hi," Eren Jaeger, the boy behind Armin, greeted soon after while his eyes began scanning the students who were gathering outside the titan gallery.

"Mikasa is inside. You can go in to look for her," Connie said to Eren while pointing at the entrance door of the titan gallery. "But beware of a creepy sculpture."

"Creepy sculpture?" Eren rose an eyebrow quizzically. "Meh, I won't be scared. What is creepier than Mikasa when she's angry?"

Krista let out a soft giggle. For those who did not know her very well, Mikasa might seem emotionless and blunt. She did not smile and talk to others often, which was why some students thought that she was a very proud woman. For those who knew her, Mikasa was actually a kind and warm person, except that she was not good at expressing her feelings very well. However, when someone made her feel threatened, especially when it involved her adoptive brother Eren, she would not hesitate to beat the person up.

"Eren, did you just call me creepy?"

 _Shit… Eren, you shithead!_ Connie inwardly shouted at Eren while Armin's jaw dropped as he turned his head towards the entrance. There stood Mikasa with a disappointed look on her face. She pulled her scarf upwards, covering the tip of her nose and breaking her gaze with Eren.

She looked down on the floor and muttered, "All I want… is to protect you… and you… find me creepy?"

"No, Eren definitely didn't mean that!" Armin assured the girl, and pushed Eren towards her. "Come on, Eren, say something."

Eren stared down at Mikasa who was hiding her eyes behind her long fringes, looking terribly downcasted. He scratched the back of his neck, and groaned.

"I was saying… the sculpture couldn't be creepier than you... right?"

 _Eren, you mega-shithead!_ This time, everyone's face turned pale.

"Jaeger. Arlet." Professor Shadis cleared his throat. "Please feel free to enter the gallery. This group doesn't have much time left before visiting the last gallery."

"Yes, Sir," Eren responded quickly, still not aware of the weird looks his friends were giving him and how his words earlier had hurt his sister.

Turning to Mikasa again, he gently patted her shoulder and whispered to her, "I will be right back."

After that, he stepped aside and pushed open the door. As he and Armin entered the gallery, they noticed that there were one assistant and seven students left in the gallery. Six of the students were gathering around a parchment paper with some drawings of titans in the display glass box while the assistant was giving some explanations about the display to them. At another side of the gallery was only Sasha standing in front of the creepy sculpture which Connie had warned them about. Her wide eyes were glued to its face and they could see her hands clutching tightly against the straps of her bag. Her usually florid complexion seemed drained of colour.

Without thinking, Eren quickly made his way towards the girl and called out her name. But she did not respond. He called her the second time and the third time, yet still no answer. His voice did not seem to reach her. Having no choice, he placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a light shake, calling her name for the fourth time. This time, it worked. His voice reached her as she shifted her attention towards him.

He thought she would respond to him with her usual cheerful greeting, calling his name with a large grin. He thought she would be happy to see him like she would always do. He thought… _He thought… He thought…_

"E-Eren..."

She was staring at him with fear in her eyes. Beads of tears began forming on her lower eyelids, threatening to fall any moment. Upon seeing her looking at him fearfully, he was totally lost for words and did not know what to do next. For a moment, he thought that he had seriously scared her. The next thing he noticed was her hair. For the first time, he saw her with her hair let down and realised how it suited her and her dressing style. Sasha had always tied her hair in a high ponytail. Even when she trimmed her hair to shoulder-length, she would always tie it into a small ponytail. He even noticed that her shoulder, the area where his hand was resting on, fitted so nicely within his palm. He had never noticed how small her frame was despite being one of the taller girls he knew in college. This time, he noticed. He had never been so up-closed to her, but he was this time. He had always noticed her, but was never into such details.

He did not know what came over him, but he did not want her to look at him like that. At the very least, not with this fearful look like she was frightened by the mere sight of him. He wanted to see her smile radiantly as she called his name. He unknowingly squeezed her shoulder harder, causing her to wince. Noticing how his grip might have hurt her, he immediately let go of her shoulder and wanted to apologise to her. However, before he had the chance to do so, Sasha took to her heels and ran out of the gallery.

 _What have I done?_ Eren thought to himself as he stared at her diminishing figure, feeling a little messed up inside his head.

"What happened to Sasha?" he heard Armin curious voice behind him.

Turning around, Eren patted Armin's back and said, "I will be right back, okay?"

Then, he quickly headed towards the gallery entrance and pushed open the door. He saw Sasha entering another room, which was labelled ' _Notable Soldiers Gallery_ ' on the entrance door, located on the opposite side of the hallway. Connie and the others were also staring at her, looking equally confused. Professor Shadis was the only one looking angry and shouting at her back to stop running like a crazy woman.

"That is not a toilet, Braus!" Professor Shadis yelled.

Eren looked at the professor with raised eyebrows and queried, "Is she looking for a toilet?"

"Huh? I don't know!" the professor replied in a guff voice. "Your sister told me that she had stomach cramps earlier."

"Sasha had?" Eren glanced at Mikasa. "I had stomach cramps just now too."

"Not you too?! Learn controlled eating, Jaeger!"

Feeling terribly lost, Eren looked at his professor with knitted eyebrows and exclaimed, "What eating?"

-:-:-:-

Finally, it was dinner time. Everyone had visited all the galleries and Dr Hange did a short debrief session, including trying her best to recruit students who would be interested to help her in her research as interns. Unfortunately, none was interested. The students gathered at a field which was not far away from the museum and free dinner packets were distributed among themselves. Groups of students sat on the grass, chatting and eating among themselves, while enjoying the light breeze and the sunset.

As usual, Sasha would gobble down her food like there was no tomorrow. The dinner was not exactly delicious as compared to their campus canteen, but Sasha still enjoyed it. The dinner consisted of a bun, diced potatoes in black pepper sauce, and a few slices of chicken meat. She was so hungry because she had eaten her lunch six hours ago. Usually, she would eat something in between lunch and dinner, kind of like a tea break. She guessed that her hunger had caused her to become dizzy and feel nauseated earlier in the gallery. It was normal to feel scared by the sculpture since most people had felt the same way too. So, she thought that it had to be hypoglycemia that had made her feel so sick when she looked at the titan's face. With the food in her stomach at this moment, she felt fine and everything seemed to be back to normal.

"Sasha, slow down. You will choke," Krista chided, waving her disposable fork like a pointing stick.

With her mouth full of potatoes, Sasha tried speaking, "Bu-wut I'm hun-ge-ry."

"But still!"

"Has Sasha ever choked on her food?" Ymir said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "I bet she can eat tonnes in a minute without choking."

"She has always been like this since she was a baby," Connie joked.

Upon hearing that, Sasha quickly swallowed her food and pretended to be surprised as she questioned him, "How do you know I was like that when I was a baby?"

"I was just kidding. Don't tell me you really have a monstrous eating habit and appetite since babyhood?"

"How would I know? I didn't ask Papa," Sasha replied, while inwardly doubting herself to be a big-eater when she was a kid.

She knew that she started eating a lot when she was in middle school. She got hungry easily and began eating twice the amount she had used to eat before for a meal. The good thing was that she could not put on weight no matter how much she ate! Sometimes, she would smuggle biscuits into the classroom and secretly eat them when the teacher was not looking. Her father had told her that it was perhaps puberty and her active lifestyle that increased her metabolism and thus, she needed more food than before. The school nurse had also told her that because she was still growing, her body needed more nutrients for healthy growth. All sorts of reasons had become her excuse to eat more. Before she knew it, food had become her happy pill. When she was sad or feeling stressed, she would eat. When she was happy, she would eat. When she was angry, food could appease her.

 _Food is life._ She smiled happily to herself at the thought of her motto.

Suddenly, her handphone buzzed on her lap. Putting her food packet down on the grass patch, she picked up her handphone and checked the caller ID. It was her senior co-worker from the convenience stall where she worked part-time at. She waved her phone at her three friends, indicating that she had to leave them for awhile to pick up a call, and then she made her way to a quieter part of the field to pick it up.

"Hello?"

 _"Braus, just to double-check your schedule. You aren't working tonight, right?"_

"Yes. I'm not taking the night shift today because I have a school excursion. I have already informed you on Wednesday."

 _"You will take on the morning shift tomorrow?"_

"Yes, morning shift plus afternoon and night."

 _"Right. See you tomorrow."_

"See ya."

Then, the line was cut off. Just when she was about to return to join to her eating buddies, she noticed that Eren was staring at her. He was with Mikasa and Armin as usual. Upon noticing her returning gaze as well, he put his food packet on his backpack and stood up. Armin and Mikasa looked up at him, asking where he was going.

"I need to speak to Sasha," he replied them and started heading towards her.

Sasha panicked when she saw him approaching her. Memories of what had happened inside that titan gallery came flooding back to her mind, making her realise that she had been very rude to him. She had just run out on him when he was only trying to speak to her. Seeing his serious face that was coming closer to her made her heart hammering crazily against her chest. She knew that he wanted to talk to her about the incident in the gallery earlier. What if he was unhappy with her? Maybe he was offended by her actions. No, she was not ready to face him. Not yet.

She brought her handphone to her ear and spoke in a loud enthusiastic voice that she could muster, "Sorry for the long wait. I'm free on the weekends, so I don't mind covering for you!"

She walked incredibly fast towards Eren's direction while pretending to be engrossed in speaking to the caller and not to pay attention to her surroundings. The distance between them became shorter, and shorter, and shorter. She could have stopped when they were finally at an arm's length away from each other. She could have just stopped when their shoulders brushed against each other. She could have just pretended that she had missed him accidentally by turning around to look at him.

But Sasha didn't.

She kept walking and pretending to be on the line.

* * *

 **Hi! Thank you for reading the second chapter. I was so happy when I received some email notifications that some readers followed, favourited and reviewed my fanfic. Thank you! You are the best and also my source of motivation (to write faster)!  
**

 **My thanks and replies to these reviewers:**

 **\- ilovejellybeans:** Thank you for being my first reviewer! I am glad that you have enjoyed it. I am trying my best to refrain from making my characters too ooc, so I am pleased to know that I have managed to keep the characters as they were in the first chapter. Thanks for the feedback! :)

 **\- Lady Serai:** Thank you for reviewing! Honestly, I enjoyed writing Shadis' moments in the first chapter. I have actually left the ending open while drafting an overall story plan because I couldn't decide who she should end up with yet. I have someone in mind for now, but I may change along the way depending on how the story goes. I love Levi and Sasha together (my first SnK crack pairing, to be honest! I don't know how some fanfics could turn me into a LeviXSasha shipper overnight). At the same time, I like Eren and Sasha as individual characters, so I have this thought of 'what if they like each other' scenario. I think they will be kinda cute as a couple :')

 ** _Heads-up!_ Levi will be appearing soon! Actually... he has already made an "appearance" although it wasn't physical (** _hint: the last part of this chapter_ **).**

 **I think I will be posting Chapter 3 next week or slightly earlier, depending on how fast I write and proofread. See you all soon!**

 **Edit:** I have changed the title by inserting 'from'. I think it sounds better now! I realised it sounds weird without a 'from' after thinking for quite some time. Sorry for the initial mistake in my title! _\- 24th June 2017_


	3. Chapter 3

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

This was probably the worst feeling Sasha had ever have. Not only did she run away from him when he tried to speak to her, but she also acted that she did not notice him when he was obviously heading towards her. There was no way she could ever face him again. Fortunately, he did not approach her after that and the bus ride back to school was quite normal, except that she kept receiving brief dubious stares from Mikasa who was sitting with Eren at the front of the excursion bus. Another fortunate thing was that it was finally the weekend. She did not have to face him again till Monday morning and she was glad that she was temporarily free from all these anxieties.

She sat boredly at the counter, staring into space and watching the clock hung above the store entrance ticking slowly. It was already 3pm and she had been sitting at the counter for hours since 7 o'clock in the morning. So far, there were only three customers that had visited the convenience store. She had thought that Saturday mornings would be very lively with customers streaming in to buy their cheap goods. But how wrong she was. Usually, she would work during the afternoon and night on Saturdays. Since she did not work the night before due to her school field trip to the museum, she wanted to make up for the lost hours. She needed money for her living expenses in the dorm, so she had been working part-time after school hours and weekends since college had started out for her a semester ago.

Currently, she was at the last week of her second semester and she could not wait for holidays to come quickly. After submitting the reflection journal on Monday morning, she was thinking to chill out at a nearby cafe after submitting the work and try out their shortcakes which were the latest additions to the menu. At the thought of the shortcakes, her mouth watered.

"Braus."

Sasha snapped out of her thoughts and quickly faced her senior co-worker who was glaring at her with a broomstick in his arm.

"Yes, Levi!"

"Why did I count three red bean bread on the shelf, Braus?" he questioned in a demanding manner. "I counted ten at 12 noon."

"A customer bought one..."

"What happened to the other six?"

Sasha bit her lower lip and began adjusting her stool to hide her bread wrappers which she had hidden underneath the counter. She did not want her senior co-worker to know that she had been secretly eating the store's bread during work and when he was in the storeroom taking down stocks.

"Braus," the grumpy senior said her name in a low voice as a warning sign to her.

Knowing that she could not escape lying to this man as usual, she pointed at the cash register and said, "Levi… I have already paid for the bread, okay? I was hungry, I swear. My packed lunch wasn't enough."

"You ate six bread within those three hours. Are you friggin' serious, Braus?" Levi scolded. "Step aside."

"Huh?"

"I said, step aside" He walked behind the counter and roughly pushed Sasha out of her stool, coming in view with the most horrendous and irritating sight underneath the counter. "Look at these, little brat. How dare you litter! Clean them up now."

The senior shoved the broomstick towards her and pointed at the bread wrappers like they were pests to him. Levi had always been a clean-freak and he made sure that the convenience store would earn an 'A' rating from the Environmental Agency which would inspect and evaluate the cleanliness of the stores every month. Other than being obsessed with cleanliness, Sasha had to admit that he was a meticulous and reliable worker even though he could be mean to people at times. A very bad aspect about him was that he wore two types of faces all the time, looking either bored or annoyed by everything possible. Sometimes, Sasha would receive some customers' verbal reviews that he was not very approachable and wished that she had taken the cashier role on that day or shift. Some school girls had actually tried approaching him, gushing and cooing how good-looking he was. But he would not respond to them, making him very cold and aloof. The girls would eventually give up and stop disturbing him soon after. Despite his small frame and being shorter than Sasha by approximately 2 inches, he was actually ten years older than her and was extremely strong. He could lift four boxes of stocks while Sasha could only lift one at a time.

When Sasha finally cleared her litter, Levi instructed her to fill up the stocks on the display shelves and clean up the storeroom while it was his turn to mend the counter.

"I will check the storeroom after you have cleaned up," he warned her. "Don't go around eating our stocks too, Braus."

"I won't! Don't worry!" she assured him with a sheepish grin before taking the broomstick along with her into the storeroom. "Oh yeah, before that..."

She stuck her head out of the storeroom and looked at Levi who was also staring back at her with his usual sour look.

"Smile, okay?" Sasha pushed the left side of her lips upwards with her index finger. "Smile!"

The older man rolled his eyes and looked away as he muttered in a low voice, "Tsk. Go and do your work, brat."

-:-:-:-

It was finally 12 midnight. The day ended very well, although they were not many customers. Sasha and her co-worker Levi had tidied up the place, counted the gains and did one last stock-check before officially closing the store. Sasha had changed out of her worker polo-tee uniform and was preparing to leave the store when a man in a formal attire suddenly walked into the store from the back gate. That man was their general manager.

What was he doing here... and at this hour? Sasha wondered to herself in surprise. Without further ado, she hurriedly walked towards him and greeted him.

"Good evening, Sir! What can I help you?"

"Where is Levi?" he immediately asked.

"In the storeroom, changing."

"Oh, I see." Then, he signalled Sasha to come closer to him, and she instantly obeyed as she got an idea that he had some private matters to talk to her without letting anyone hear him. "Have you heard, Miss Sasha?"

"Heard what?"

"Levi."

Her eyebrows rose in curiosity. "What about Levi?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what? I don't understand," Sasha said impatiently with a frown. _Get to the point!_

"Levi's promotion."

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, looking very surprised at the general manager. She cupped her cheeks and started grinning happily. She did not care if he did not tell her earlier because he was the type who would not flaunt his abilities and every good thing he had. Besides, her mind was screaming ' _oh my gosh_ ' non-stop at the sudden news, feeling extremely happy for her ever grumpy senior.

"What is he promoted to?" she asked in excitement.

"Store manager."

"That's great news! We should celebrate! Levi truly deserves this!"

"That's what I'm here for," the general manager proclaimed proudly. "And Miss Sasha, since you have been working with him for almost 9 months, I wonder if you know anything that he likes. Like his favourite food, past times..."

"No, I don't."

"He doesn't talk much, does he?" the general manager sighed.

Sasha nodded in agreement. "He only talks when he wants me to do certain things."

"He has always been like this... Man, you know, when he was younger, he used to be..."

"Oluo Bozado, stop feeding this girl rubbish," Levi's voice was heard from the storeroom.

The general manager laughed. "I haven't said anything yet _-ack!_ "

The older man next to Sasha covered his mouth in pain with tears forming in his eyes. Not knowing what was happening, Sasha began rubbing her superior's back to sooth whatever pain he was experiencing. Then, Levi stepped out of the storeroom with a slingbag hanging on a shoulder and stared boredly at the two of them. In Levi's eyes, she could see a subtle glint of mockery as if he was saying ' _serve you right_ ' to Oluo.

"Congratulations, Levi!" Sasha cheered happily. "Sir wants to celebrate your promotion. That's why he's here."

"There's nothing important to celebrate about."

"All on me, Levi. We have to celebrate your important milestone," Oluo said with his hands still covering his mouth.

"I agree!" Sasha chimed. "Sir, when are we celebrating?"

Levi let out a soft groan. "Not now, please."

"How about tomorrow?" Oluo suggested.

"You know weekends are the busiest among all other days," Levi reminded.

"Monday night?"

"Mondays too," Levi interjected.

Guessing that Levi was trying to give excuses to cancel the celebration, Oluo firmly decided to give his final answer without Levi's further input, "It's okay, Levi. We can close the store for Monday night. I will let Mr and Mrs Kefka know about it too. If I'm not wrong, Miss Sasha usually works on Monday nights too."

"Yup!" Sasha answered.

"So, let's take a break, shall we? Let's celebrate at the bar!" the general manager announced, holding a fist in the air while another hand still covering his mouth.

Sasha looked hesitant for a second. She could not drink. She was only 19 but the bar's entry age requirement was 21. However, since her superior had wanted it, she did not want to ruin his plan, as well as Levi's. She guessed that she had to tell them nicely that she would not be celebrating with them after all because she had something on Monday night. A good excuse, she decided on saying.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to tell the men, Levi cut in, "Let's not go to the bar. Let Braus choose."

"Eh?" Sasha gaped at Levi. "Why... I can't..."

"You helped me a lot for the past few months. So, I'm letting you choose a great place for us to celebrate."

"Really? You don't mind?" After earning a nod from her senior, she beamed and continued, "Let's go to the nearby restaurant. You know the one that is located a few shop houses away from here. They sell great and delicious grilled meat! You guys have to try it! Let's go after you, Hannah and Franz are done with work! I will take you all there."

Suddenly, a soft thud was heard and everyone's attention went to the fallen slingbag next to Levi. The senior just stood still, not moving or picking up his bag. Oluo and Sasha were not sure what had happened, but they definitely saw Levi's eyes widened for a split second before narrowing at Sasha. The brunette shuddered. Had she said something wrong? Was that restaurant not good? Did he not like grilled meat? She totally did not know anything about him. He was always so reserved. Even though they saw each other almost everyday at work, he did not talk much about himself. While she was inwardly panicking and trying to think of another place for suggestion, Levi broke his gaze with her and stooped down to pick up his slingbag.

"Good. Let's go," he muttered softly as he brought his slingbag over his shoulder again. "I haven't tried grilled meat before."

"You haven't?" Oluo mused, looking down at Levi as if he had been missing a big part of his life for not eating grilled meat. "It's like the best food ever."

"I know right!" Sasha squealed.

"Because… grilled meat... it reminded me of somebody." Levi tightened his grip on the strap of his slingbag, eyes darkening. "Somebody who did not come back after promising that she would."

"Hmm?" Oluo asked quizzically, "Who?"

"None of your business."

With that cold response, Levi pulled out the store keys from his pocket and headed towards the back door. Sasha and the general manager followed him behind, and left the store together. After bidding the general manager farewell, Sasha and Levi walked to the nearest bus stop together. It was an awkward walk as the both of them would remain silent throughout. Usually, when they were heading to the bus stop together, Sasha would crack a few jokes about her day with the customers. But Levi would only listen and not comment anything she had said, making Sasha feel silly talking to herself. If Connie had been the one with her, he would laugh and generate more jokes along the lines. Anyway, Levi was just being Levi, the most reserved person she knew other than Mikasa. At least, Mikasa would sometimes smile at her jokes and stupid antics.

"Braus."

Sasha turned to look at her senior whose face she could not clearly see due to the dark surrounding. It was already past midnight and only the dim orange lights from the neighbouring lampposts were shining. As the dim lights hit upon his facial features, she saw the usual grumpy look he always wore on his face. However, his voice did not sound exactly irritated when he called her name. Instead, he sounded sad.

"You don't have to take us there on Monday. We know the way there."

"Uh, sure. I will meet you there?" Sasha asked.

"Be there by 7pm."

"Noted."

Silence fell upon them again. As they were arriving at the bus stop, Sasha spotted her bus at the 'T' junction, heading towards the bus stop. She bade farewell to Levi and started to quicken her pace to catch the bus.

"Braus," she heard him calling her from behind.

She halted and turned around, giving him a questioning smile.

"Don't be late."

 _You know, I won't._

She nodded and gave him a final wave before running towards the bus which had already arrived.

-:-:-:-

It was a warm Sunday afternoon, and the three girls in the common room were busy typing away on their laptops under a huge ceiling fan, trying their best to complete their reflection journals. Ymir and Krista were almost done, except for some editings to do as they had spent their Saturday writing. On the other hand, Sasha was still on her second paragraph and needed another 700 words to reach the word limit. Nevertheless, she was confident that she could finish writing before dinner time. Then, she could do her edits at night before bed.

"Whoops! I'm done!" Ymir clapped her hands gleefully and closed her laptop. "Gonna print it out after dinner at the student lounge. Krista, are you done?"

"I guess so," the blonde replied, still reading through her reflection. "I have overwritten by 100 words and I can't cut down my words anymore. Will Professor Shadis notice?"

"It's only 100-word difference. He won't notice," Ymir reassured. "And heck, how did you manage to write so much?"

"I don't know, okay?" Krista groaned. "Are you sure he won't notice?"

"I remembered there was once Armin overwrote an essay by 300 words and he still got away with it. So, no problem, trust me!" the dark-haired girl said confidently as she patted Krista's back.

Krista gave Ymir a doubtful look before closing her writing application and switching off her laptop. Upon seeing her friends complete their work, Sasha felt an intense pressure to complete her work quickly too so she began typing furiously on her keypad. Words began pouring out unconsciously as her fingers moved on their own. She went on from mentioning about the historical events which she had read up on the internet because she did not pay attention during the educational talk by Dr Hange, to her observations of the artefacts in the galleries. She kept writing and writing, lost in her own thoughts and concentration that she did not notice her two friends had brought some potato chips out of the pantry and even eating them in front of her. Ymir was astonished by the fact that no matter how loud the crunching sounds she had purposely made to distract Sasha, the brunette would not look at her and continued typing. Until suddenly, Sasha spotted something strange in her fifth paragraph that she was currently working on...

 _Titans were once humans. The innocent Eldians were forced to become titans due to political reasons. The Marleyans_

Marleyans? Eldians? Who were they?

Sasha finally stopped typing and stared hard at her own writings. Titans were once humans? How could it be? Dr Hange didn't mention anything about it. How...?

Without further ado, Sasha pressed the backspace button and removed those sentences. Then, she began scrolling up to check her previous paragraphs.

 _It dawned on me the horror we faced. That day when Wall Maria was first breached, many people died. Homes were lost and villagers had to evacuate to Dauper. Dauper was the safest village as it was located at the southern part within Wall Rose. Food was scarce and villagers were not happy. Everything changed. Even I could not hunt and hated the life I was living. I wanted to be free._

This time, Sasha was furious with herself. She had no idea what she had written. The internet sources showed nothing about Dauper and whatever walls. And how on the earth did she even think about hunting! Again, she deleted that whole chunk and started reworking on her paragraphs.

 _Alexandra of Dauper..._

She paused upon the recall of that hunter's portrait. Wasn't that Alexandra belonged to Dauper? So, that meant that Dauper was once an existing village, right? Maybe a hunting village? Or a village of hunters?

Oh gosh. She did not know what to think anymore. She pushed away her random thoughts and continued her reflection. She needed to catch up with her friends and joined them for eating… potato chips…

 _Potato chips!_

Sasha shifted her gaze from her laptop and frowned at her friends, especially Ymir who was munching on the chips loudly.

"Give me some!"

"Now, finally, you look at me. I was wondering what had happened to you. Like wow, Sasha's not caring about food?" Ymir said with a laugh. "Here!"

Ymir handed some chips to Sasha, and the latter quickly shoved everything into her mouth. She squealed happily to herself when the salt and the rough texture of the chips rested on her tongue like they were meant to be there.

Just then, Krista asked the beaming girl, "How much have you written, Sasha?"

"Let me check… 870 words!" Sasha replied, amazed by how much she had written even though she had deleted some chunks of weird writings here and there. "I think I can finish it within an hour! Then, let's have dinner together!"

Krista nodded in agreement and pulled Ymir away to her room, not wanting to disturb Sasha. In Krista's room, the blonde urged Ymir to sit down on her bed while she took the chair next to her study table. She had something to discuss with her friend.

"Yes, Krista? You don't mind me eating chips on your bed?" Ymir teased, waving her packet of potato chips in front of Krista.

Krista dismissed it, and narrowed her eyes at her friend who instantly caught on the message. Ymir put the packet down on her lap and smiled sheepishly.

"Armin wants a surprise birthday party. But the problem is that his grandfather doesn't allow parties at home," Krista started.

"How about a function room?"

"That's expensive, you know!" Krista retorted. "Besides, we can't hold it at Mikasa's and Eren's house! It will not be a surprise."

"Does Mikasa know about the party?"

"Of course, she does."

"She will definitely spill it. You know, she's honest and all," Ymir highlighted in a rather bored voice. "So, what are you suggesting?"

"Here."

Ymir nearly spat out her chips but luckily, her palm smacked against her lips on instinct and she started coughing. She could not believe Krista was suggesting to hold a surprise birthday party for someone, a boy in particular, in their dormitory. Girls' dormitory. Hell no! If they got caught, they would be in trouble.

"I object!"

"Why not? We have a pantry, a common room, just the three of us staying here… We have television and WiFi. Sasha has video games. You have some unused birthday decorations and I have..." Krista picked up a box which was sitting on her desk and showed it to Ymir. "... a karaoke set."

"Damn. What kind of party is this? Who sings karaoke in someone's birthday party?!"

"Jean's suggestion."

"He's obviously trying to ruin it!"

"I think it's cool."

"No, it's not! Do you think Eren will like it? He doesn't seem like someone who likes singing," Ymir argued. "Besides, we can't be singing too loud. We will get caught easily."

"Armin says that Eren has a great voice, as well as Connie."

"That's not the point, Krista!"

"I can write in to the Dorm Master to ask for her permission to set up a birthday party on 30th March. I'm sure she will allow because it is still the holidays and many people have returned home. And I will say the party is only for girls," Krista suggested. "There won't be many of us too. So, I doubt that we will be that noisy."

"Right, won't be _that_ noisy. I can guarantee you, that Dorm Master will reject it. But you can try," Ymir said with a shrug. "It will be better if we hold it somewhere else instead. Just saying."

At that instant, the door creaked open, revealing half of Sasha's face and body as the girl peaked in. The two girls turned their attention towards the brunette in surprise.

Sasha's face immediately turned red and she started stammering, "I-I-I don't mean to in-interrupt… but I heard you guys talking… some bir-birthday party… or something..."

"Oh?" Ymir's eyebrows rose and her lips curled into an evil smirk. "You couldn't hear me eating potato chips beside you, but you can hear us talking about someone's birthday party from afar?"

"You were rather loud," Krista defended for Sasha, but it was the truth anyway.

"Heh."

Sasha slowly pushed open the door and walked in. "Whose birthday party, may I ask? Why do we have to hold it here?"

"Eren's. And don't you think it's cheaper to hold in here?" Krista answered, hoping that Sasha would agree with her so it would be a two-on-one.

Instead, Sasha's red face suddenly drained of colour and her lips quivered as if she wanted to say something. Her heart was hammering in her chest again at the thought of seeing Eren. No, he couldn't come to their dormitory. She could not face him. She did not mind celebrating his birthday, but not at this place where she stayed. She would get self-conscious and probably go missing throughout the party to hide.

"What do you think, Sasha? You can share your video games with him..."

"I object!" the brunette clamoured and disappeared from the doorway, leaving the two girls in the room speechless and lost as to what was happening to her.

-:-:-:-

"I'm sorry for shouting at you guys earlier. I was shocked. We shouldn't hold his birthday party at our place. Dorm Master won't like it either. Let's hold it somewhere else instead… alright?" Sasha apologised and tried to reason with her friends.

They were at the campus canteen which only operated till 6pm because it was the weekend, having their early dinner. Sasha was done with her reflection journal, faster than expected, and she had done some editing. Her work was already saved in Krista's thumbdrive so that they could print out their reflection journals together after dinner. Sasha ordered spaghetti with mushroom soup and a deep-fried bun, while Ymir and Krista both ordered the same Chinese food – rice with two greens and a chicken drumstick. Not much of a surprise, the three of them were the only ones in the canteen. Usually, students living the dormitory would have left to eat at other places or having hangouts at some nearby places on Sundays. Eating the same food from the same stores almost every day could be boring.

"It's okay. Sorry that we did not discuss it with you," Krista apologised as well, feeling bad that she had left Sasha out of their party discussion. "Let me discuss the location with Armin again. Maybe he has a better idea."

"Okay..."

"By the way, Sasha, are you free tomorrow afternoon till night?" Krista asked.

Sasha was reminded of Levi's promotion celebration and she promised him that she would be at the grilled meat restaurant on time. "I have some work-related stuff at night. Why?"

Krista explained, "Connie asked if we want to hang out at the amusement park after we have submitted our homework. Can't you take a leave tomorrow night?"

"No, I can't." Sasha knitted her eyebrows apologetically. "I would love to join you guys… but I have to be there tomorrow. I promised my co-worker already. I'm sorry."

"How about you join us in the afternoon and then leave later? It is not always you can hang out with us either because you are always working and having your archery training," Ymir proposed thoughtfully.

Sasha looked hesitant for a moment before nodding. "Sure… I think I can make it tomorrow afternoon then."

Krista clasped her palms together excitedly and effused, "Great! I'm going to let Connie and Armin know later."

 _Armin?_

"Is Armin and his friends coming too?" Sasha gulped.

"Yup, of course! Eren, Mikasa, Jean and Marco too."

 _Oh god, why?_

"The nine of us?" Sasha's voice dropped. _With Eren?_

"Yes!" Krista gushed. "Connie suggests that you will take us to somewhere cool to have our lunch together too. He says that you know a lot about good food places to eat."

"Y-Yeah… I guess..." Sasha had a sudden loss of appetite as she stared down at her remaining mushroom soup and half-eaten bun. "Let's me think about it tonight."

"All set then!"

Krista then took out her handphone and began texting Connie and her distant cousin about their plans. Ymir glanced back and forth at her friends, noticing a change in Sasha's demeanour but choosing not to say anything. She was starting to have a hunch about what was going on with Sasha's behaviour.

"Guys… I have a question to ask," Sasha spoke in a rather soft voice. "What would you do if you made someone angry with you?"

Krista looked away from her handphone screen and queried at her strange question, "Why? Did you make someone angry?"

"No, I didn't!" Sasha lied. "Just that I… you see, during my workplace, my co-worker made the general manager angry last night… He did not know what to do… and I… just want to help him..."

"If I were him, I will apologise upfront," Ymir replied. "It is the most sincere approach I would do."

Disliking that approach, Sasha shook her head and prompted her friends further for better options, "What if he doesn't want to face him? Like he is scared and not ready to face the manager yet, but still feels the need to apologise to him. What should he do?"

"How about asking him to write an apology letter to the manager? It is also one of the most formal way I can think of," Krista said.

"But this is useful if it is work-related," Ymir pointed out. "Otherwise, a face-to-face apology is still better."

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows and kept her silence. She guessed that she would heed Krista's advice instead. It seemed to sound better. She did not have to face him and all she needed to do was to think of what to write and explain herself to him. Hopefully, he would not be angry with her so that the rest of day in the amusement park would not be so awkward with him.

 _Okay, before I sleep, I will write him a letter and put it in his locker early in the morning tomorrow._ Sasha pondered to herself with a nod.

So, after they had finished their dinner, the girls went to print out their reflection journals and then headed back to their dormitory. While Ymir and Krista were watching some comedy internet videos in Krista's room, Sasha was in her own room taking out her stationery and a coloured foolscap paper from her drawer. With a click of her pen, she started writing her letter.

 _Dear Eren..._

* * *

 **Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this chapter. Sasha's a big liar here (laughs). If Levi knows about it, I wonder what he will do to her XD  
**

 **I want to thank _Lady Serai_ and _ilovejellybeans_ for reviewing the previous chapter, as well as those who have favourited and followed this story last week. :)  
** **Chapter 4 will be updated next week. It will be slightly longer than this chapter. See you all soon!**


	4. Chapter 4

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

"Eren, I'm done printing our reflections… Eren?"

Mikasa stood behind the said boy in puzzlement, holding their papers in front of her chest. He seemed to be reading something inside his locker as his hand was inside it holding up a piece of light blue paper with some handwritings. Curious, Mikasa went next to him and peered into his locker.

"Who wrote this?" she spoke softly.

Startled, Eren flipped the paper downwards and hid the letter from Mikasa's view.

"Sasha," he replied, refusing to shift his gaze from the paper.

"Oh? She's no longer angry with you?"

"I… I don't know." The boy crushed the letter and inserted it into the side pocket of his jeans before closing his locker. "I will read it later. Let's go."

Mikasa watched him walk away towards the direction of their classroom, and a thought came upon her. She hurriedly caught up with him and walked next to him.

"I don't think she's angry with you," she pressed on. "Sasha will never be angry over something like that. Unless it is about Jean and food."

"What do you know?" Eren groaned. "Rather than angry, I think she is scared of me."

Mikasa's eyes widened. "Why?"

"I don't know. I think I hurt her… during our field trip."

"And you didn't apologise? What did you do to her?" Mikasa asked in disbelief. "Do you need me to help you to talk to her?"

"No!" he snapped but immediately regretted it when he saw Mikasa's shocked face. "I'm sorry. I mean, I can handle this myself. I can't be always relying on you. And it's my problem, so I have to deal with it on my own."

The girl did not say anything further and looked down, hiding her lower face behind her red scarf again. She wanted to help him because she was afraid that he would screw things up. It was so hard for him to befriend people because of his hard headed and dense personality. He could not read others' emotions well and tended to say things that he actually did not mean to say without realising it too. If not for Armin, he would be friendless and only had her by his side. She got a feeling that his way of handling this problem with Sasha would only make things worse… because Sasha was also equally hard to get through without being straightforward with her. But with his straightforwardness, he might accidentally offend Sasha too. Mikasa sighed. What should she do with the two of them without making Eren angry with her for meddling again?

After everyone had submitted their reflection journal to Professor Shadis, the nine friends gathered outside the classroom, discussing their plans for lunch and how to get to the amusement park. Sasha suggested everyone that they should dine at Jean's family restaurant since they had not been there before, and it would be great if Jean could request for a discount since they were friends with him. However, Jean rejected this idea.

"You choose this on purpose, Potato-girl! I know it!"

Sasha smirked, "Oh? What's wrong with wanting to try the famous omelette rice that you are so proud of?"

"I will never forgive you!" Jean yelled, wanting to lung at Sasha but he was held by Marco who kept telling him to calm down.

"I think it is a great idea though. I have never eaten at Jean's family restaurant before. I want to give it a try," Krista said with a smile. "And I think your parents will be very pleased to see you, Jean."

Freeing himself from Marco's grasp, Jean grumbled, "They will embarrass the hell out of me. Especially my mother."

"Really? That would be interesting! I can't wait to see," Connie joked, earning a light slap on his head by Ymir. "Ouch! Ymir! What the hell?"

"That's not a nice thing to say, idiot."

"As if you were ever nice!"

Not wanting to delay their time any longer, Armin cleared his throat and spoke, "So, Jean, please lead the way to your restaurant."

"Are you all serious? My restaurant?" Jean grimaced and upon seeing everyone nod, he sighed in defeat. "Okay then… Man… why do I have friends like you guys…"

Sasha giggled softly to herself. Yeah, how did she end up befriending so many people in college? At first, she met Connie when she was younger and they instantly clicked. Other classmates had dubbed them the comedy duo because they would crack jokes to others and sometimes, their interactions between each other were already funny even if they were not meant to sound funny. Connie was the only friend that stood by her all the time, and they followed each other everywhere and even to the same schools and the same courses. Some people would make fun of them, calling them a couple. The truth was, Sasha and Connie saw their relationship as something slightly more than best friends but of course, not in a romantic manner. She used to be shorter than him by a few centimetres but by the time they reached sixteen, Sasha was taller than him by almost half a head. Sometimes, she felt bad that Connie had to look up to her when he talked to her. But Connie did not seem to mind about their height differences and continued being with her.

Then, she met Jean on the first day of college. They did not get along with each other so they did not talk to each other a certain period of time until she knew Krista and Ymir who were sharing the same dormitory with her. The three girls became fast friends who always supported and helped each other in their studies. Through Krista, she got to know Armin who was the smartest and one of the nicest boy she knew. He was almost like the male version of Krista. Sometimes, he would tutor her topics that she did not understand in lectures. Through Armin, she got to know Jean again. It felt almost like she was fated to meet this irritating guy, so she tried her best to be nice to him who did not appear to be putting in any effort to be nice to her in return. But then, there was Marco who was Jean's best friend from high school. Marco was another nice guy and he was very clever too. Also, through Armin, she became acquainted with the Jaeger siblings – Eren and Mikasa. She was not very close to them but she had to admit that she had shared a strange relationship with Mikasa. Despite not talking much to each other, Mikasa was always helping her in weird ways. For example, the stomach cramps excuse.

As for Eren, she did not know since when _it_ started but _it_ definitely developed over time through her brief interactions with him. She had not told anyone yet and she was sure that no one had caught on because she always acted so natural around him. It was only until that day when they visited the titan gallery, things became so awkward between them.

While the group was following Jean's lead, Sasha stole a glance at Eren's large back in front of her and wondered if he had already read her letter. Would he forgive her for being rude? What if he did not want to talk to her again? Should she heed Ymir's advice instead and confront him face-to-face? Just then, Mikasa who was walking beside Eren turned her head a little and looked at Sasha from the corner of her eyes, causing Sasha to flinch and look away. When she looked up again, Mikasa was no longer looking at her and was talking to Eren and Armin about some things which she could not hear.

She sighed. She thought everything would be less awkward if she had written a letter to him. However, it turned out that nothing had changed between them. Would she be able to survive the awkwardness till evening?

After some walking and a bus journey, the group finally arrived at Jean's family restaurant which was called ' _Kirstein's Diner_ '. Upon entering the restaurant, they were immediately greeted with a loud excited squeal.

"Jean-boy!" A cheerful plump woman made her way towards them and hugged Jean tightly. "You finally came back, Jean-boy!"

"Ma, stop it," Jean groaned as he tried struggling out of his mother's embrace. "I'm with my friends."

"Friends?" Mrs Kirstein gasped and turned to look at the group of students behind Jean in surprise. "Oh my goodness! Jean brought his friends over!"

"Ma!"

"Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking care of Jean-boy!"

Mrs Kirstein randomly grasped Ymir's hand and shook it hard. Then, she grasped Armin's hand and shook it too. She began shaking everyone's hand with pleasure, making Jean turn red in embarrassment.

"Please have a seat. This is the largest table," the bubbly woman offered as she guided them to a table which was for ten people. "Jean-boy, please help me to collect their orders, yeah? I will be right back."

With that being said, the woman hurried into the kitchen while making gleeful sounds of laughter. It was so obvious that she was so happy to see her son after so long. Everyone took a seat around the large table and began deciding what they wanted to eat from the menu. Sasha flipped through the menu, eyes sparkling at the sight of food pictures. She wanted to order everything from the menu and try all of them. But she had to be on a budget because she would be spending money on the amusement park entrance fee after that.

"Jean-boy, I want that omelette rice which Sasha was talking about," Eren spoke with a small smirk.

"Don't call me Jean-boy!"

"Jean-boy, shepherd pie with orange pudding, please!" Connie chimed in.

Jean yelled frustratedly, "Stop it, okay! I won't take your order if you call me that again!"

"Omelette rice and a glass of apple juice for me," Krista ordered.

"Same as Krista," Ymir said.

Marco raised his hand and said, "Jean, omelette rice, thanks."

Armin also said, "Omelette rice."

"Omelette rice," Mikasa followed the rest.

Then, it was Sasha's turn. "I want the omelette, that hotdog special, and that!" She pointed at the sign hanging on the wall near the entrance. "Monday special set!"

"That's almost two meals, Potato-girl!" Jean said exasperatedly.

Not like he cared about her eating habit. He cared more about the image that she might give him as someone who knew her. If he could, he would rather sit away from her. Preferably, another table.

"Thanks, Jean-boy!"

"Right, Sasha Braus." That was the final straw. "I'm removing the Monday special set off from your order."

Sasha's jaw dropped and started whining, "Nooooo, Jean! You can't do this to me! Jean!"

But Jean ignored her and entered the kitchen to give their orders. True enough, when everyone had received their orders, Sasha only had a plate of omelette rice and another plate of hotdog with chilli and mustard toppings. She was so angry with Jean, but she did not want to create a huge fuss over it since the orders had come. She angrily stabbed the hotdog and took a huge bite out of it, glaring at the boy sitting at the opposite of her. Although Jean was staring down at his plate of omelette rice, he could sense a pair of eyes boring into his head. He inwardly snickered. _This is the payback for everything, Sasha! Bleh!_

As if she could hear his inner thoughts, Sasha grunted in a soft voice, "I hate you, Jean."

"Now, now. Let's eat peacefully, okay?" Krista tried to calm her friend down. "You can order another set after this."

Jean's eyes moved slightly upwards, staring mockingly at the fuming brunette who was still staring daggers at him. _Me too._

-:-:-:-

" _I have something to tell you. Not now. But after this mission."_

 _She had come to a resolution. There were so many things to say to him. She promised herself that she would tell him after everything was over. Even if it was not their final battle, she wanted to let him know her answers. Even if there were many battles ahead, she wanted to be by his side. She thought that by keeping promises, it would become their reason to survive and live._

" _What is it about?" he asked._

" _That one you asked me before… on my birthday."_

" _Oh..."_

 _He sounded hesitant and afraid. Nevertheless, he wrapped his warm hands around hers and held onto them tightly. She did not want him to let go. If time could stop, she wanted him to stand next to her like this forever and hold her like she was the most important person to him._

" _You are not going to reject, are you?"_

 _She chuckled. "I can't tell you yet, dummy."_

" _Then, promise me, Sasha." He released her hands and laced his fingers with hers. "That you will tell me when we come back here again."_

" _After feasting at the grilled meat restaurant?"_

" _No..." He pulled her close, pressing his forehead against hers. "Here. Before the feast."_

" _I promise."_

 _She saw him smiling so kindly at her, and that made her happy inside. She wanted to lean in and go beyond her boundary that night. But she could not do it. She wanted everything to be a secret until she told him her answers and all the things she had wanted to tell him. She was confident that she could survive this round. She had always survived. Not for nothing was she one of the top ten trainee soldiers. She was called a reliable scout for a very good reason too. She was sure that she would tell him eventually._

 _Even at her final breath, she was sure that she would tell him. It did not matter if they were not meant to be together in this life. Perhaps, if afterlife ever existed, she was sure that her words would reach him one day. If only they could remember the promise…_

"Sasha?"

Her eyes flew open, finding herself staring at Connie who was staring worriedly at her. They were still on the bus, on their way to the amusement park.

"Are you… crying?" he asked.

"Crying?" Sasha gently rubbed her eyes with the back of her palm and felt something liquid spread across her skin. "Oh… It's nothing."

"Really? Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine! Really!" Sasha reassured with a forced smile. "I think I am just tired. I read that tears can form while we are sleeping too. That's how we get eye boogers!"

Connie arched an eyebrow. He was sure that she was crying in her sleep. Krista and Ymir had told him on Friday that she had a nightmare and it was her sixth time. She had woken up drenched in her sweat, with tears in her eyes, and disorientated. She did not speak to him much about that dream and its details, but there was once he had overheard her muttering to herself that her nightmare first started when she entered college and had the same one a few weeks later. That was a long time ago when they were in their first semester of college. At first, he thought that she was just stressing over the new changes in her life. It was normal for students to be stressed in a new school environment. As time passed, she would definitely adapt to her new life. This was what he thought and hoped so. Connie wanted to help her, but how could he when she did not want to tell him anything?

"It's not _that_ nightmare again, right?" he slowly asked.

"Huh..." Sasha furrowed her eyebrows and let out a laugh. "Of course not! Actually..."

He saw her lace her fingers together and a gentle smile formed on her face. A light blush could be seen on her cheeks too. She seemed meek and happy, and that surprised him.

"... it was a good dream, Connie."

-:-:-:-

 _Dear Eren,_

 _The reason I am writing this to you is to apologise. I didn't mean to be rude and run off like that. The titan sculpture was scary and I was startled when you suddenly called out to me. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you angry. I should have just spoken to you during dinner, but I was so afraid to face you because I thought you were angry with me. So, I pretended not to see you. I know I was very childish for doing that. Please forgive me._

 _From Sasha_

 _P.S. Can we still remain as friends? :'(_

Eren stifled a laugh upon seeing the last sentence. Her crying emoticon was so weird and cute. It was badly drawn as the face was out of shape and she even added two cat-like ears and a ponytail above the face. He could imagine how ridiculous she would look with two cat ears on her head, giving him a sad look with a tear in her eye. She would definitely be cuter if she had worn her hair down like before. Maybe a smile would be even better…

 _Huh…_

Eren crushed the already crumpled paper and looked at the moving scenery outside the windowpane, swallowing hard. What was he thinking? Feeling the heat rising up to his face, he touched his forehead and held it there for a moment. His forehead felt a little cool. Not trusting his sense of touch, he took Mikasa's hand which was resting on her lap and placed her palm on his forehead too. Mikasa who was originally napping was roused from her sleep when she felt someone suddenly grip her wrist.

"Mikasa!"

"What, Eren?" she responded sleepily.

"Am I having a fever?"

The girl shifted the upper part of her body to face the oblivious boy next to her. She pulled her wrist out of his grasp and forcingly cupped his cheeks with her two hands, earning a loud yelp from him. Then, she gave him a small smile.

"No. You are definitely fine. But..." She tilted his head to his left side to have a clearer view of the right side of his head. "Your ear is very red, Eren."

Eren touched his ear, looking puzzled. "Really? My ear's red? Are you sure that I am not having a fever?"

"Yeah. I guess that you don't know about it, but your ears will turn red when you are happy." Mikasa stated, smiling a little wider at her brother. "What has made you happy just now?"

Instinctively, Eren inserted the crushed paper into his pocket again and brushed Mikasa's hands off his face.

"Nonsense," he muttered under his breath as he looked out of the window again. "I'm not happy or anything."

Suddenly, the bus came to a halt and someone from behind tap Eren's and Mikasa's shoulders. It was Marco.

"Guys, we have reached. Let's alight," he said and then made his way through the crowd on the bus with the others tagging along behind him.

After everyone had alighted this bus, they were greeted with loud lively music and people screaming their lungs out in the amusement park. While queuing for the entrance tickets, Sasha and Connie were already planning to visit certain booths and rides together while the rest just agreed to everything they had suggested. Sasha wanted to ride a roller coaster because she had never ridden it before, so she suggested that they should ride that first. However, Jean disagreed with her and said that they should gradually 'increase' the fear factor by playing with something less scary first.

"Aww, Jean-boy is scared," Sasha teased with a snicker. "Just say that you don't wanna ride the roller coaster."

"Wh-Who says I'm scared!" Jean retorted as he blushed deep red. "I can ride it ten times straight without a problem!"

"Show me!"

"Someone, please separate these two idiots," Ymir grunted in annoyance.

"Sasha! If you pick a fight with Jean one more time, I'm going to remove all our potato chips from our pantry," Krista warned, crossing her arms and deepening her frown at Sasha and Jean. "And Jean, I don't know what to do with you but just ignore Sasha, please?"

Sasha bit her lips and kept her silence. Gosh, Krista could be scary when she was angry. Even Jean and the others gulped when they saw how pissed off Krista looked. Krista was usually called the 'goddess' because not only she was beautiful, she also had a nice and kind personality. She was helpful and was always seen smiling even to strangers. She rarely got angry but when she did, it was best to keep quiet and go her way. After what it seemed like everything had calmed down between Sasha and Jean, Krista clasped her hands together and smiled ever so brightly as if nothing had happened.

"Let's try the roller coaster first, shall we? Then, we try the bumper cars. After that, we should try that chairlift!" Krista said.

With everyone's agreement and the tickets ready, the group entered the amusement park and had their fun on their first ride. It was thrilling as Sasha felt herself flying through the air. At first, she was petrified when the coaster suddenly dropped from a great height. It felt as if her heart nearly jumped out of her chest and she could not scream. After getting used to the sudden plunges and several awkward angles, she found herself enjoying the ride and started screaming like almost everyone else.

"It's so fun, Connie! It reminds me of the first time we had our 3DMG training in the forest!" she squealed with her arms in the air, laughing with so much joy.

"You mean the flying fox?" she heard him shouting back next to her.

Sasha frowned for a moment before dismissing what she had just spoken. Maybe he was right. The flying fox element. She tried it once in an obstacle course activity which their middle school teachers had brought them to. It was so long ago that she must have been confused and momentarily forgotten what it was called.

"Yeah!"

After the roller coaster ride, they headed to the bumper cars station. This ride was probably a great opportunity to get their revenge on others, of course, in a fun and joking way. Connie took this chance to drive straight into Ymir's car and when she scowled angrily at him, he grinned and mouth to her ' _Payback for calling me idiot all the time!_ '. On the other side of the platform, Mikasa, Jean and Eren were taking this bumping game a little too seriously. It all started when Krista bumped onto her and giggled at her surprised facial expression. Mikasa wanted to bump onto her back but drove too fast that she actually did hit Krista's car and accidentally bump onto Eren's. Eren did not think too much about it and thought Mikasa was actually having fun herself, so he wanted to do the same to her. He sped up and roughly bumped onto the boot of her car, causing her to bump against Jean.

"Eren! How dare you hurt Mikasa!" Jean yelled.

"What do you mean?" Eren yelled back and drove towards him.

"He didn't hurt me," Mikasa tried to assure Jean who was not listening to her as he charged towards the green-eyed boy.

"Die, Eren!" Jean shouted with an evil grin.

Mikasa's eyes darkened as she also charged towards Jean's car from behind. With a forceful bump, Jean was pushed aside and his bumper car went out of control, turning around rapidly and hitting other cars in his way.

"Jean!" Eren gasped in alarm as he noticed Jean's car was heading towards Marco. "Marco, look out!"

Meanwhile, Sasha and Armin were bumping their cars against each other, not noticing what was going at Mikasa's side until a sudden force hit upon Sasha's car from the side. Marco was screaming next to her as he crashed onto her car. Inevitably, she hit onto Armin and all three of their cars slid and crashed into the wooden wall.

"What the hell, Eren? How dare you hit me?!" the three of them heard Jean's exasperated cry. "Oh my gosh. Look at them!"

"Not me, okay! Mikasa hit you!" Eren's voice was heard.

Sasha's bumper car was sandwiched in between Marco's and Armin's. Though she was not hurt at all, she was too stunned to process what had just happened. She turned her head to her right and saw Armin rubbing his shoulder in pain. He must have hit his shoulder against the wall during the crash. Marco seemed fine too as he was further away from the wall. Sasha and Marco got out of their cars and helped Armin out.

"Armin, let's rest somewhere else, alright? We should take a look at your shoulder," Marco said in concern.

"No, I'm fine. Just a slight hit. I don't think there will be any bruise," Armin responded, forcing a weak smile at the two people in front of him.

Sasha pointed at a bench which was just outside of the platform and said, "But let's rest for awhile till you feel better."

"Armin! Sasha! Marco!" multiple voices called out to them.

The trio turned around and noticed their friends were slowly making their way towards them.

"We're sorry for playing rough just now. Are you guys okay?" Jean said apologetically.

"Yeah, we are fine. We are going to take a rest first. You guys can continue to have fun. Don't worry about us," Armin assured.

Sasha and Marco nodded and waved to their friends before the three of them left the station to grab a seat outside. After a good ten minutes, Armin was already feeling better and his shoulder did not hurt anymore. Their friends were already done with their game and also left the station to join the three of them outside. Next, they headed to the chairlift attraction. It reminded Sasha of cable cars, except that the chairlift was not enclosed – literally just a floating chair with safety belts and a safety bar for riders to hold onto – which made this ride more thrilling.

"Which do you all prefer? Single, double, triple, quads?" Armin asked his friends. "I would rather take at least a double."

"Single for me," Eren proclaimed.

"Well, single for me too," Jean said, sounding as if he was trying not to lose to Eren.

"Single," Mikasa said.

Ymir placed her arm around her blonde friend's shoulder and said, "Krista and I will take double."

"Hey, Armin, I think I can take a double with you," Marco told Armin with a smile. "What about Sasha and Connie?"

"Sasha, do you want to take double with me?" Connie turned to his friend, asking.

"No, I want single," Sasha replied.

Connie knitted his eyebrows together. "Eh! But I don't want to be alone up there!"

"Connie, why don't you join me and Marco then? We can take the triple," Armin suggested.

Connie scratched the back of his head and silently nodded as he stood next to Armin and Marco. They boarded the chairlift first, followed by Sasha on the next lane, then Ymir and Krista on the third lane. They were the ones who set off first. The ride was slow and calming. Furthermore, it was not as scary as the roller coaster ride. Sasha looked at the scenery beneath her feet. She 'flew' above the attractions, people, and even trees. She was glad that she had gotten the chance to take this ride. Closing her eyes, she found herself relaxing as the gentle cool breeze brushed against her cheeks. While enjoying the silent peace in midair, she noticed that Ymir's and Krista's chairlift was far ahead of her. Connie's triple chairlift was no longer in sight. Strange. She thought they were only slightly ahead of her. She even spotted Jean's and Mikasa's chairlifts on the other lanes moving ahead of her even though they started later than her. Why was her chairlift moving so slow?

Just when she entered the forested area, she felt something was amiss. The ride became slightly 'rougher' than before. It kept having small jerks and some squeaky sounds could be heard above her. She was starting to be scared. She looked beneath her feet and saw only trees. Her surroundings were all trees. She could not see her friends anymore. Even the chairlift before her and sharing the same lane as her was no longer in sight. Where was everyone?

Her hands gripped on the safety bar tightly, thinking of the worse scenario that could happen to her. She wanted to reach the other end quickly, but why wasn't this ride even moving faster?

As if being slow was not scary enough, her chairlift suddenly halted, nearly throwing Sasha into the air if not for her safety belt. Her face turned pale at the realisation that she was not moving any further. Her eyes trailed to her feet. She saw trees, and trees, and trees.

"What the…? No way..." Sasha gulped.

She was stranded in mid-air and nobody was around her. She was so scared that she could not say anything.

"Help..." her voice croaked weakly. "Somebody..."

She closed her eyes and hid her face behind her palms. She had to wait for someone to notice her and save her. After a few minutes, there was still no sign of people. Not even the other lanes. Did something happen back at the starting point? Why were there no people taking this ride? Did someone stop the ride, causing her to be stuck in the middle of nowhere?

 _Oh god… no..._

"Ahhhhhh!" a scream broke the silence, startling Sasha.

Before she could turn to the source, she felt a hard slam against her chairlift and everything started to shake. As her chairlift began rocking in all direction, the squeaky sounds above her became louder, frightening her even more. She hoped that she wouldn't fall. She did not want to die. She was shivering in fear as her tears were threatening to fall.

"Hey..."

She ignored the voice behind her. She hung her head low and covered her ears. The rocking and the squeaky sounds did not cease. Out of a blue, another crash was heard and her chairlift was thrown forward again. She yelped and crouched on her seat with hands still covering her ears.

"Sasha!"

She was starting to hear voices again. She began to realise that she would start hearing voices calling her name when she was afraid. She felt herself going crazy. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare so that when she opened her eyes again, everything would be back to normal.

"Sasha!"

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry..." Sasha began crying. "Papa..."

"Sasha, get a grip!"

She suddenly felt a tug on her ponytail, causing her to stop. She let her legs drop and slowly turned her head to look at the person who had just pulled her hair, only to find herself staring into a pair of familiar dark green eyes.

"Eren?" she sniffed. "What… Why…"

"Sasha, this is bad. We are stuck," he said as he let go of her hair. "And the couple behind us just crashed onto us."

"You mean… there are people behind… And we are stuck… Is it because of me?" Sasha asked in a quivering voice. "I swear I don't know what happened to my chair! It suddenly stopped moving, Eren! I am so scared!"

"Calm down, Sasha."

Sasha adjusted her position and turned her body to face Eren. Her eye widened at the sight behind her chairlift. Eren was not strapped to his chair. Even though their chairlifts were stuck closely against each other, he was dangerously holding onto her chairlift while his right leg was stepping on a metal bar in front and his left leg was stepping on another metal bar at the side. He was literally standing with nothing beneath him. One slip would cause him to fall.

"Eren! Sit back down! What are you doing? Are you stupid?!" she yelled in panic, not realising that her voice had finally come back to her.

"But you were crying!" he argued.

"I wasn't!" she denied. "Who would be so stupid to leave his chair like this? It's dangerous!"

"I can't sit down anymore, Sasha! The seat is too far away!"

"Are you serious?!" the brunette cried in alarm.

In the end, it was her fault that he was in a more dangerous position than her. She unstrapped herself and brought her legs to the chair. While holding onto the metal bar attached to her chair, she pushed herself up and stood on the seat. At this moment, it was Eren's turn to panic.

"What are you doing? Are you stupid too? You are going to fall, you know. Sit down!" he said in a low voice.

Ignoring him, Sasha held tightly onto his arms and stared hard at him.

"You are going on board my chairlift," she said. "I can't let you stand like this."

Eren shook his head. "You are going to fall too if you are standing like this."

"I won't," she said firmly. "Now, try your best to hop on. I will hold onto you."

"I can't. You will fall!"

Sasha impatiently tugged his arms and pulled him. The way she was pulling him alarmed him so much. She would definitely fall if she kept leaning backwards. She was so scared previously, but she had changed. She was no longer concerned for herself. She did not care if she fell. She only thought of bringing him back to safety. She was stupid. So foolish. Yet he could not stop himself from feeling strange in his stomach when he saw her face.

Carefully, he brought his left leg up and stepped onto the safety bar which was right above his hip. With a push, he brought another leg upwards and rested his knee against the safety bar too. He was holding tightly onto Sasha's arms and she was also holding on his. He leant forward, accidentally acting more weight on Sasha. Sasha's legs wobbled, trying to support both of them.

"Sasha, let go of me," he whispered to her. "You have to hold onto something."

"I can't. You will fall."

"I won't fall if you hold onto something, Sasha. Not onto me." He removed one of her hand off his arm and placed it on the upper edge of her chair. "Hold on tight, okay?"

His palm was above hers on the chair, pressing her palm against the edge. Seeing that she was secured, even if a little a bit, he leant forward again and brought one of his legs over the edge. Sasha's hand that was still holding onto his arm travelled down to the back of his waist and tugged him again, urging him to take bring another leg up. He did, but his bottom which was supposed to be on the edge slipped and he fell down. His hand was still tightly held onto the metal edge with Sasha's hand beneath his, resulting him to fall sideways and hit his back against the curved edge of the seat. His arm was also twisted at an awkward angle. A soft gasp was heard before feeling something heavy fell on top of him. In response, his eyes closed shut and he let out a loud groan. His body was hurting so badly.

"Eren!"

Panting heavily, he slowly opened his eyes and Sasha's worried face came into his view. She looked dishevelled with her loose ponytail and strands of hair falling freely down her face and on his collarbone. She was breathing heavily against his chest and her lips slowly curled into a smile when she saw his half-lidded eyes staring back at her.

"Eren..." She took out her arm from under his body and used her free hand to gently shake his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Heavy..." he said in a breathy voice.

"Heavy?"

It took Sasha a few seconds to understand what he meant. Blushing in embarrassment, she pushed herself away from him and pulled her other hand out of his grasp. Then, she shifted backwards and went to another side of the chairlift.

"Sorry for being heavy!" she mildly shouted and looked away sulkily.

The boy slowly sat up and rubbed his back to soothe his aching pain. He seldom did this type of scary stunt and he was honestly scared as well when he was in that life-and-death situation. If Mikasa knew about what he had done earlier, she would definitely hit his head hard and scold him for being a daredevil. But he was glad that he had managed to be safe. Seeing Sasha safe as well, he felt relieved.

"Sasha, are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?" he asked in concern.

The brunette shot him a glare and inhaled deeply before muttering angrily, "Why couldn't you think about yourself first? You were about to fall."

Eren narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't want to be hearing this from you."

"You know how scared I was? If you slipped off from those things, I... I... I can't, ya know!"

"What do you mean by you can't? And who would be so stupid to stand on the chair like that?"

"You are the stupid one here!"

"No, you are."

The two of them glared at each other for a brief moment before Sasha broke into a laughter. It was strange. They did not usually talk a lot to each other and they had never argued with each other before. Thus, this conversation was indeed different and special to her. It was like a small step ahead from their previous interactions. Even though they were both bickering and calling each other stupid, she did not exactly dislike this moment with him at all.

"What's so funny?" he questioned, sounding annoyed.

Sasha shook her head and chuckled, "I was just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"About how you scared me."

Eren broke away from her gaze and mumbled, "Well, you scared me too."

As she could not clearly hear what he had just said, Sasha leant slightly forward and brought her ear closer to him. "What?"

"Nothing."

She definitely heard something but she did not want to press on. Just then, she realised that she was no longer worrying about being stranded in the middle of nowhere. The trees below her were no longer frightening. She was no longer breaking down. And it was all thanks to Eren and his daredevil stunt. With him sitting next to her, she somehow felt less nervous and less scared than before. The chairlift was also rocking less vigorously than before.

"That day…" Eren began. "I wasn't angry with you."

Sasha looked at him from the corner of her eyes.

"So, don't be scared to talk to me."

He had read the letter, Sasha realised. Though she wanted him to read the letter because that was her purpose writing it after all, she felt embarrassed to hear him bringing it up. She wished he would just stop this conversation there and change to another topic.

"But I'm also sorry, Sasha. I shouldn't have grabbed you like that. It must have hurt." Eren brought his hand up in front of him and demonstrated the action of squeezing someone's shoulder. "I wanted to talk to you during dinner but you were talking to somebody else on the phone."

He turned to look at her and continued, "I wanted to talk to you again to apologise, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. I thought you didn't want to talk to me again because I have hurt you… And you were angry with me, perhaps. Then, Mikasa said that you were probably not angry with me. But I..."

"I wasn't angry with you. You didn't hurt me," Sasha interrupted him. "I ran away because I was scared of the titan, not you."

It was so weird, yet so funny at the same time. While they were inwardly worrying to themselves about how the other person was angry with him or her, they were trying to find ways to apologise but did not have the guts to face each other again. Perhaps being stranded in the air wasn't as bad as she thought after all. At least, they were talking to each other again, apologising to each other and explaining themselves along the lines.

After what it seemed like an eternity, the stranded passengers were rescued by the rescue team and were brought back to the game station where everyone was worriedly waiting for them. The couple who was behind Eren and Sasha ran to their group of friends and started telling them how scared they were up there. Meanwhile, Eren and Sasha also joined their friends and were bombarded with questions such as whether they were fine, what had happened to their rides, how did Sasha end up looking like she had just escaped from a tornado, so on and so forth. As explained by the staff, the lane which they had taken was malfunctioned out of a blue and they only realised it much later. So, the staffs had temporarily stopped the rides while they did not expect that the chairlifts in their lane were still moving which had resulted in collisions. The staffs apologised to the stranded people and asked if anyone was hurt in the process. Luckily, everyone was fine.

"Strange. I thought there was supposed to be someone on the second chair," a staff member whispered to another staff, but their conversation was overheard by Jean who happened to be standing close to them.

Puzzled, Jean turned to the staff members and asked, "Hey, you mean… there wasn't anyone on that chairlift ride?"

The staffs flinched at Jean's interruption, and one of them hesitantly responded, "Yes. But it was badly crashed onto the first one."

"That was Eren's ride. We set out around the same time together. I was on the left lane next to his," Jean stated as he pointed at his friend who was still being attended by others. "If he wasn't on his chair, where was he?"

"If I'm not wrong..." The staffs glanced at each other before looking at Jean again. "That girl and that boy were found together on the first chair."

Jean frowned. _What? Did Eren just…? Ugh. That suicidal bastard._

-:-:-:-

In the end, Sasha was late. It was already 7.58 pm. If not for being stranded, she could have made it on time. She quickly alighted the bus and ran to the grilled meat restaurant. As she put her handphone on silent mode, she did not realise that she had received multiple calls from Levi until much later. When she had wanted to pick up the last call, her handphone battery decided to give up on her and died. Her day could not get any worse, could it? Levi would certainly be very angry with her for being late. Probably the promotion party had already started. She did not know who would be there, but she was sure the party would have started without her since she was only a mere part-time worker.

As she approached the restaurant, she saw a small forlorn figure standing next to the entrance and looking at something in his palm. The figure became recognisable as she got closer, and her heart began to palpitate in fear.

"Le-Levi..." she called out his name when she reached the entrance, panting heavily.

The man looked up from his handphone screen with anger reflected in his eyes. He kept his handphone in the back pocket of his usual black trousers and took a step forward towards her. Sasha gulped when their eyes met.

"You are late. By an hour, Braus."

* * *

 **Uh-oh! What will you say, Sasha?**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter again! My new school semester is starting so I won't be updating weekly anymore *cries*. I have prepared a few chapters ahead during my break last week, but I will only post them after they have been proofread. I will still continue writing whenever I have the time to do so, but I want to let you all know in advance that I won't be fast in my updates. I am also currently writing a LevixSasha one-shot and will post it when I am done. Sigh... I shouldn't be writing another fic because I have quite a few uncompleted stories, but I can't get enough of this pairing hahaha**

 **I want to thank my reviewers and those who have followed this story last week.**

 **Here are my replies to the reviews:**

 **\- ilovejellybeans:** Thanks for reviewing again! I hope this chapter is interesting :)

 **\- aisasha** : I'm glad that you like it! Interestingly, the part where Sasha couldn't confess her love to _that_ _person_ was a random scene that came to my head one day (during shower lol) and it became a writing prompt for the first chapter. Personally, I like the concepts of past lives and soulmates (not that I believe in them). So, this fic will be more on future!Sasha finding out what those words were and who _that person_ was. May those words reach him in the end :)

 **\- Lady Serai** : Thank you for reviewing! Hmm... yes :X

 **Well then, I shall see all of you again in the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

Two strikes… Two down… Great. More of them were coming his way.

He swiftly glided down from the roof of a building using his gear to the ground and hopped on a horse which was standing next to a bloodied lifeless soldier. He had to head towards the emergency area as there were multiple purple flares signalled in the sky earlier. Guiding a few soldiers behind him, he went into the inner part of the town. He believed that his subordinates were still fighting in there. Houses had collapsed. Blood stains were all over the place. Everywhere was in a mess and he saw no sight of his subordinates. For a moment, he thought they had left the area and made their way towards where the purple signal flares were.

As he rode through the quiet town, he noticed two horses next to a pile of debris. A familiar female soldier was standing next to her horse, looking down at something behind that pile of debris with a forlorn look on her face. He made his way towards that subordinate and the view behind that pile of debris became clearer. His throat went dry almost immediately upon the realisation of what, or rather, who she was looking at. He stopped his horse and stared at the lifeless person lying in a pool of blood on the rough ground. The person's eyes were half-opened and her legs were no longer there. Even her arms were in terrible shape.

" _Do you know about that restaurant there? It sells delicious grilled meat. Let's go there when we come back! I will take everyone there! You have to come!"_

He could hear her cheerful voice ringing in his head. The words she had spoken the day before felt so real at this moment. It felt as if she had not died yet. Everything he was seeing had to be an illusion. Throughout his life, he had been living in darkness, trying to find a purpose to live his life. He had seen too many deaths of his close ones and comrades. The last person he wished to see dying was actually her – the annoying sun that had slowly made her way into his life over the years.

He had yet to tell her anything. He only wished that he could do so after the long battle was over. He thought that she would come back to him like she would always do.

But she could no longer come back to him… because he had come _too late_.

Whenever she and _he_ were in the same picture, he was _always_ later.

-:-:-:-

It was already 7.01 pm. The 'glutton' should have been waiting outside the restaurant before the arranged timing. That was what Levi thought. She was never late for work. Knowing her, Sasha would come for the food. She would definitely show up if the meal was on others. However, she was late. He thought that she had school stuff going on, but then he remembered her telling him that she would be on holidays from this week onwards till mid-April. She couldn't have forgotten about his promotion party, could she? She was so excited when she recommended this restaurant to him and Oluo their general manager.

He tried calling her a few times, but she did not pick up. Then, when he called her for the eighth time, he received a voice message which said that the caller was unavailable. His eyes darkened at the message. This girl didn't turn off her handphone, did she?

Half an hour had passed. He began to feel something was amiss. While Oluo was drinking his draft beer with two of his other colleagues, Levi kept staring at his handphone, hoping that the girl would call him back or text him saying that she would be late. Oluo told him that Sasha might not be coming and wanted to start the dinner without her. Levi kept refusing and argued that the girl would come. She did not tell him anything yet, so she would come. She had to come. He knew she would turn up no matter how late she was.

"Why do you strongly believe that she will come? It's already passed 30 minutes and she hasn't texted or called you yet," Hannah, his full-time worker at the convenience store, asked him.

"All we have been doing is drinking beer. Can we just start ordering the main dishes?" Hannah's husband and another full-time worker, Franz, said. "We can eat slowly till she comes."

"No," Levi objected, narrowing his eyes at the couple. "She will join us." _She had always come back to us. To me._

"Come on, Levi. We can order something light first. We are quite hungry, to be honest," Oluo stated, being fully aware that Levi was actually losing his patience waiting for Sasha judging by his irritated look and voice.

"Well then, go order something for yourself first." Levi stood up from his seat. "I'm going outside to wait for her."

"Are you serious?" Oluo sounded appalled. "It's your party, Levi."

Levi lowered his gaze at the general manager and muttered, "I don't really care about it in the first place."

"Wha-"

Before Oluo could say anymore, Levi left the table and stepped outside. Oluo stuck out his lower lip, showing his displeasure towards Levi's attitude. He took a sip of his beer and then turned to Franz.

"Is he and Sasha close? Sasha told me they weren't. But I still don't get why Levi is getting… you know… a little upset that she isn't here."

"Frankly, I don't think they are that close… I don't work with Sasha often, but only once in awhile when our shifts overlapped." Franz thought for a moment before continuing, "Levi is always instructing Sasha to do things like how he would always speak to me and Hannah. He's her mentor and our senior after all."

Hannah nodded in agreement. "Levi doesn't talk much during work either. He only talks when necessary. Sasha would be at the counter, doing what she should do. And Levi would be doing his logistic duties. They don't interact a lot, I should say?"

"I see," the general manager mumbled, still not convinced. "Maybe our dear friend here is actually concerned for that part-timer."

"Obviously," Hannah laughed. "He has been staring at his handphone for half an hour!"

"I think although Levi doesn't show it, he's actually a very nice person who looks out for others," Franz added with a small smile. "Two years ago, there was a young boy who came into our shop. He did not have enough money to pay for the instant cup noodles. But Levi let him off and even helped the boy to pour hot water in the cup."

"Yes, and he added a cooked hotdog for the boy!" his wife exclaimed. "You should see him patting the boy's head."

Oluo's eyes widened in surprise. For almost eight years he had acquainted with Levi, he did not know there was a warm side of him other than being a sharp-tongued clean-freak who always looked as if he wasn't interested in anything in life all the time. He did not smile a lot too, which was why Oluo had once thought that he was a mean person when he had first met him at that same convenience store. They used to be co-workers too. That time, Oluo was a college student doing part-time at the store while Levi was another part-timer who also worked part-time at other places to earn more salary.

Oluo used to admire Levi because of many reasons. Firstly, Levi was handsome and had many admirers. Even older women patronising their store would fawn over him. Secondly, Levi was cool. He had a cool hairstyle and was extremely capable of doing almost everything such as cooking, repairing mechanical appliances, cleaning, so on and so forth. Therefore, Oluo spent almost four years of his life mimicking Levi's hairstyle, speech, body gestures and facial expressions until he had met the girl of his dreams when he was studying his postgraduate degree. She had kept telling him that the hairstyle did not suit him and he seemed so fake and insincere in his actions that she felt grossed out by everything he did. Hence, he stopped mimicking Levi thereafter.

"Sir, please keep this a secret, okay? He didn't know that we were looking," Hannah said with a giggle.

Oluo's lips formed into a straight line as he slowly nodded with some hesitation. Meanwhile, Levi was leaning against the wall outside the restaurant, trying to call Sasha for the next half an hour until he heard heavy rapid footsteps coming towards his way.

"Levi..." the person said in between pants.

He knew it was her right away without having to look at her face. He glanced up at her, inserted his handphone into his pocket, and took a step forward towards her. He noticed that her hair was tied into a messy ponytail and small hair bulges could be seen on her head. Perhaps she did not have the time to properly comb her hair before making her way here, he thought. She looked down and bit her lips as she hugged her small backpack tightly against her chest. It looked as if she was preparing herself to be scolded by him. Truthfully, he was not angry at all. Rather, he was relieved that she had finally arrived. Safe and sound.

"You are late. By an hour, Braus."

He did not intend to sound very pissed off but his tone came off harsher than he had expected. In response to his words, Sasha hung her head even lower apologetically.

Then, she said, "I'm sorry, Levi. I should have informed you earlier that I will be late, but my handphone battery went flat on the way here. I'm also sorry for missing your calls. I didn't notice them at first."

Sasha looked up and tried to further explain herself, "The reason why I am late…"

"I don't want to know now. The others are waiting," he interjected and turned his back towards her, reaching his hand out for the entrance door handle.

"Levi, I'm sorry for being late. I'm truly sorry that I have made you wait for an hour."

"Yes, you did." His hand was already on the handle but he paused for a moment as he responded to her. "It was a seriously _long_ wait. Frustrating as hell."

"Then, you all should have just eaten without me."

He turned his head, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I feel really bad for delaying this whole celebration thing," she went on. "Because of me…"

"Stop talking," he interrupted her again in a low voice. "Everyone's hungry inside."

Sasha kept her mouth shut almost instantly and hung her head low again. Sighing softly, Levi shook his head in a subtle manner and pulled open the door. Sasha followed him inside the restaurant and both of them made their way to the table where their colleagues were at. A few small dishes and three mugs of beer were already on the table. Upon seeing Sasha, the three people greeted her. Oluo immediately asked why she was late before she could greet and apologise to them.

"I went out with my friends and something happened to one of my rides. So, I was stuck there for quite a long time before someone saved me," Sasha explained. "And my handphone battery was flat too so I couldn't contact anyone. I'm very sorry for making you all wait."

Sasha bowed apologetically to her seniors, but Hannah quickly reassured her, "It's alright, dear. We understand. Besides, Levi insisted on waiting for you."

Sasha looked up and glanced at Levi who was pulling out a chair for her. She knew that he had waited for her outside the restaurant, but she did not expect him to be the one who had insisted on waiting for her to arrive. Not like she would expect Oluo, Hannah, and Franz to wait for her either. She was only a mere part-timer who worked on certain shifts four times a week. Basically, they did not have to include her in any party or event because she was not a permanent staff under that convenience store chain. She felt that she was not exactly worth the wait at all, and that made her feel even worse in front of her seniors. Furthermore, it was Levi's promotion party. It supposed to a joyous night for him but she had ruined the start.

While she was mentally criticising herself, Levi's voice broke her train of thoughts, "Braus, have a seat."

"Ah… thank you…" Sasha bowed to him. "Thank you for waiting for me too."

When she looked up, she noticed his facial features relax a little as he stared at her. He then turned to his co-workers and his eyes trailed across the table.

"Seems like they haven't feasted on the grilled meat yet," he pointed out. "Let's order the meat now, shall we? Here's the menu. You choose, Braus."

Levi slid the menu across the table towards Sasha's seat, indirectly prompting her to sit down. Sasha nodded at his instruction and sat down to have a closer look at the menu. She chose a variety of dishes and upon the approval of her seniors, she went to make her order with a waiter. Oluo wanted to order two more draft beers for Levi and Sasha but Sasha rejected because she could not drink. More like she did not want to drink because her father had always warned her not to drink alcohol because he was worried that she had a low tolerance for it like him and might get herself into trouble. Being an obedient girl, she listened to him and had never tried a taste of alcohol in her life. Instead of beer, she ordered a glass of plain water.

Their orders came after a good ten minutes of waiting and their celebration officially started.

-:-:-:-

Krista and Ymir had finally returned to their dormitory after a day of fun and good food. They opened their letterbox and found a white envelope addressed to Krista from the Dorm Master. Krista gasped in excitement as she took the envelope out from the letterbox, and showed it to Ymir.

"She replied!"

Ymir peered at the front cover of the envelope sceptically and said, "Don't tell me that you really wrote to her?"

"Of course! Why not?" Krista tore open the envelope and took out the letter. "Let me see… Oh my gosh, Ymir."

Krista looked at Ymir with a sad frown. The taller female rose an eyebrow quizzically. Was this letter not about the birthday party?

"What happened?"

"Ymir… We have to tell others." Krista shoved the letter into Ymir's hand and a huge beam appeared on her face. "We are allowed to hold a birthday party here on 30th March!"

Ymir gaped at her friend in surprise. That had to be a joke. Refusing to believe that the Dorm Master could easily accept Krista's ridiculous request, Ymir read the letter carefully and even twice to confirm what she was reading. She did not know if she should feel happy about this approval, but she was definitely flabbergasted. She instantly thought of Sasha who was very against this idea.

"No way…" Ymir muttered and shifted her gaze to Krista. "How are we going to tell Sasha?"

"Just tell her normally. If she doesn't want, then… we can't force her either," Krista answered with a small shrug. "Honestly, I hope she will approve."

"Hm? Why? Low on budget? Our dorm sure has free interesting facilities like your karaoke set…"

"No," Krista interjected. "More like…" The blonde paused and leant closer to her friend's ear. A cheeky grin could be seen plastered on her usual radiant face. "… I want our dear friend to have a full opportunity hosting the birthday boy's surprise party." Krista moved away a little and smiled at Ymir. "What do you think?"

Ymir cleared her throat and pretended that she did not know what Krista was trying to imply. She just waved her hand and dismissed what she had just said.

"More like we will have more work to do now," Ymir grunted. "All the cleanup and decorations. Such unnecessary burden."

"Ymir, we can secretly invite the others to help out with the decorations. But of course, we have to tidy up the place. We can't let the boys think that we are untidy people!"

Ymir rolled eyes with a scoff, "I swear, you have the neatest room as compared to mine and Sasha's. Anyway, we just need to clean up the common room and the pantry. I don't think we are inviting them into our rooms… right?"

"Nah. But you know… I mean, you may not know. Some curious people."

"I don't get what you are trying to say, girl. But anyway, we have to let Sasha and everyone know later. Let's not stand here anymore. I need to wash up now," Ymir said and unlocked the door to their little dormitory.

-:-:-:-

"Hey." Levi nudged Oluo's arm as soon as they stepped out of the restaurant. "Thank you for the treat."

Oluo glanced at Levi with a surprised look as it was not often he could hear Levi thanking someone. Even if he did say his thanks all the time, he usually did it in a softer voice. So soft that Oluo could barely hear him.

"Sure, don't mention it. It's your party after all. And I organised it," the general manager said. "I heard that you are finally promoted after so long, and I just have to congratulate you."

Oluo scratched the back of his neck in an awkward manner after saying the last sentence. Levi did not say anything but gave a slight nod of appreciation. The couple and Sasha also stepped out the restaurant together and gave their thanks to Oluo and some final well-wishes to Levi before they bade farewell to the two older men and left.

"Well, Levi," Oluo began again as the two of them walked under the shophouse shelter heading towards the car park. "Time sure flies very fast. We were so young back then. Made silly choices and struggled through tough times. I can't believe how much we have grown so much as compared to how we were when we were in our early twenties."

"Heh." Levi gave Oluo a small smirk. "I still couldn't help but still receive goosebumps at the memory of you trying to be my doppelganger."

"Don't be so mean after I have treated you," Oluo said in a feign whiny voice. "I didn't know what I was doing back then, okay?"

"Sure."

"Man, you never change much since we first met. Still quiet and reserved," Oluo stated with a soft chuckle. "But today, I see a slightly different side of you." He smiled at Levi and continued, "You are actually nice to your subordinates. They were all talking great things about you when you weren't around just now. Oh, and also how you were so nice to a kid."

 _A kid?_ Levi's ears perked up. Did either Hannah or Franz see him treating a kid to a meal? Actually, it did not matter if anyone had seen him being nice to children, especially those who could not afford to pay a meal from his convenience store. Those children had reminded him so much of himself ages ago, therefore he felt the need to be more giving towards them.

"By the way, Levi, I have something to tell you," Oluo continued to speak.

"What is it?"

"I am getting married soon."

Levi was inwardly surprised although he did not show it explicitly. "Congrats. When?"

"4th July."

"Okay."

"Aren't you going to ask who I am marrying to?" Oluo asked awkwardly.

"Who?" Levi blurted.

"Ha! My dream girl from my college days! You know the one whom I kept talking about last time."

"Okay."

Oluo's shoulders dropped as he narrowed his eyes at the shorter man beside him. "Why are you so anticlimactic?"

"Congratulations," Levi repeated, ignoring that question.

"Thank you. Well then, I will be sending out invitation cards very soon. I hope you can attend our wedding," the general manager said with another smile. "As my friend."

Levi gave him a slight nod again. Upon reaching the car park, Oluo wanted to offer Levi a lift back home but Levi rejected. After saying their farewells, they went their separate ways. Levi, as usual, headed towards the same bus stop where he always waited for his late night bus at. There he unexpectedly saw a familiar brunette absentmindedly sitting on a bench. She was probably still waiting for her bus. Levi walked towards her and sat next to her quietly. However, the girl was still not aware that he was next to her. He was not sure if he should call her to let her know that he was just beside her, but then he wanted to see how long it would take for her to notice him. However, a minute had passed and Sasha had yet to acknowledge his presence.

"Braus."

The girl flinched and turned her head to look at him in surprise. "Levi? I didn't notice you. Sorry!"

"I just got here."

"Right." Sasha rested her chin on her backpack, staring happily at the older man next to her. "Did you enjoy the dinner, Levi?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"The grilled meat was the best, right?" Sasha chirped. "I like the beef. Oh, and you know, that dish…"

Once Sasha started talking about food, she wouldn't stop talking effusively about it. Levi just listened to her steady stream of compliments on the restaurant, and a small smile was plastered on his face without him being aware of it. As he closed his eyes, he let his ears take in her words. Her resounding voice was a reminder to him that she had finally made it in the end. He had waited so long to hear those words coming from her mouth. He had waited too long for this day to come when they could eat grilled meat together.

"Ah! I forgot to hand this to you…" Sasha zipped open her backpack and took out a small envelope. "I wrote a small congratulatory note. Silly me, I was supposed to give it to you just now but I was so engrossed with the party and totally forgot about it."

Opening his eyes, he saw her holding the white envelope next to his hand. He took it and looked at the cover. _To Levi_ was what written on it.

"You can open it now if you want!"

"Thanks. I will read it when I get home," Levi uttered as he kept the envelope in his slingbag.

"Levi, I have been thinking for quite some time now… about something," Sasha spoke again, changing the topic to something that had been in her mind recently ever since she had found out that he was promoted.

"What?" he asked, puzzled.

Sasha glanced upwards and let out a soft 'hmm'. Then, she looked at him with a look of uncertainty. It nearly killed his patience. If she did not want to talk about it, she should not have said anything. But since she had said it, she might as well tell him because he knew that the thing she wanted to say was surely about him. He narrowed his eyes at her. _Say it_ , he mentally ordered her.

As if she could hear his voice, Sasha began again, "I was wondering why you are always being polite to me."

He deadpanned, "You want me to be rude to you, Braus?"

"No, I mean, you are my senior. Older than me too. Now that you are my superior, I think it is kinda weird that I am the only one who keeps calling you by your name."

"Franz and Hannah also call me by my name," Levi reminded her.

"That's the point!" Sasha furrowed her eyebrows as she leant slightly closer to him. "Levi, you called them by their names!"

Levi remained silent. He knew where she was getting at.

"Call me Sasha," she got straight to the point, sounding a little more serious. "Like this, I will feel more comfortable."

"I will see if I can remember," he said.

The girl furrowed her brows even more. Was her name so hard to remember? Or was changing the way he called her difficult?

"It's okay if you don't want to call me Sasha. I actually don't mind," Sasha muttered softly as she looked away from him. "It's just a silly request from a part-timer."

Then, she stood up and walked towards the edge of the bus stop. After giving a quick wave at the incoming bus, she turned to look at Levi again who was also staring back at her. Nothing was written on his face, and she felt dejected. Despite that, she put on a grin and said her farewell.

"Bye, Levi. See you on Wednesday."

Levi gave her a small wave and the girl boarded the bus. When the bus sped off, the newly appointed store manager took out his handphone to check the time and see if there was any new incoming message. As soon as he unlocked his handphone screen, the call log list appeared on his screen. He had not exited the page since earlier when Sasha had arrived. As he stared at the name at the top of his call log list, he recalled those times when he had to call her name repeatedly whenever he wanted to get her to run some errands or perform reconnaissance. Those were the times he could call her without caring about any repercussion.

 _Are you sure to delete the (1) selected item(s)?  
_ _Yes / No_

His finger hovered over the 'Yes' selection as he took one final look at the name in the list.

 _[Call unable to get through icon]_ **Sasha** _(17 calls) Monday, 19:59_

* * *

 **Hello! Again, thanks for reading this chapter! You would have probably guessed (a few chapters back) that Levi has memories of his past life. Yes, he has. :)  
When he said "It was a seriously _long_ wait. Frustrating as hell.", he didn't mean to sound so pissed off. It was supposed to be like an emotional frustration and sadness of waiting for somebody to return from a battle and turn up for a reunion during which the person did not turn up at all. He had waited for her to fulfill her promise for so long (2000 years later). :')  
**

 **As for my LeviXSasha one-shot, I am done writing it! But I found it rather long (13K+ words) _\- opps_. I need some advice from the readers. Would it be better if I split it into two chapters like a two-shot instead? Or just post it as a one-shot? Which will be more comfortable for reading? As for me, I don't mind reading a very long chapter. But different people have different opinions about it. So, I want to know what you think about it!**

 **Before I end this author's note, I would like to thank _ilovejellybeans_ who has reviewed the previous chapter. As always, see you guys again** **in the next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

With her eyes fixated on the small black dot in the middle of the target, Sasha drew the nocking point of the bowstring backwards to the side of her right cheek and steadied her pose as she aimed the arrowhead at the bullseye. She held her breath and slowly adjusted her position of the arrowhead. When a surge of confidence raised in her, she released the bowstring and the arrow flew across the court and hit the target. It landed within the smallest yellow circle on the target, missing the bullseye by half a centimetre. Feeling unsatisfied, Sasha clenched her fist and groaned.

"Sasha, nine points!"

"Okay!" Sasha shouted back to her senior who was observing her performance.

"Total 261 points. Keep it up!" the senior praised as she pulled out the arrow from the target. "Want to go for the final end?"

"Yes!"

Sasha reloaded her arrow on the nocking point again and drew the bowstring. She kept telling herself that she had to hit the bullseye this time, if not she had to keep practising until she could perfect her aiming. She had been training since morning and it was frustrating to see her performance fluctuating – sometimes hitting either the bullseye and the smallest yellow zone on the target board. To Sasha, if the arrow did not hit the bullseye, that meant that her aiming was not good enough even if the scores for both bullseye and the smallest yellow zone were the same. In the eyes of her archery club seniors, they saw potential in this first year student ever since she had first joined the club. She had claimed that she had played archery before, mainly for leisure purposes with her father, without prior formal training. However, dubbing herself as a noob archer, she said that she was just lucky whenever she could hit the target board. To measure her capability, the seniors had set up a trial for her and some other first-years who were interested in joining the club.

During the trial, Sasha's first three shots were not stable and kept missing the target, probably due to anxiety. However, from the fourth shot onwards, Sasha began to show promising results. She hit the red zone two consecutive times and her sixth arrow entered the second smallest yellow zone. Sasha was delighted and requested for a final shot, mainly to prove to herself that she could hit the target not just by pure luck. True enough, the arrow hit the target, landing directly between the red zone and the outermost layer of the yellow zone. At that moment, the brunette was so determined to become a better archer that she joined the club officially.

She had trained almost three times a week in their school indoor sports hall and sometimes in the field, which she hated the most because of the wind that always messed up her target. Within six months, she had improved a lot and had her first competition together with three other members as a team. Unfortunately, her team did not win anything. Despite that, Sasha remained motivated and was determined to win a medal back for her school in the next competition. So, she continued practising harder and even took up a horse archery course at a neighbouring community club for a brief period of time, mainly for fun and also to practice her aiming skills out in the field. For once, Sasha had found herself being good at something that she enjoyed, other than what others had always 'praised' her for her eating habit.

 _Food is life, but archery is a hobby._ See the difference?

Time flew quickly and five months had passed. As suggested by her team captain, Sasha had signed up for her second competition in the individual category. As the archery competition was coming up very soon, Sasha had been practising almost every morning and afternoon during the weekdays without fail. She did not want to disappoint her seniors who had put so much faith in her. Neither did she want to disappoint herself who wished to achieve something back from the competition which she had worked so hard for.

 _Thud!_

Bullseye.

"Nine points to Sasha!"

"Yes!" the brunette let out a high-pitch squeal and hopped on her feet cheerfully.

"You can take a break if you want. You have been practising since 8am. It's going to be 1pm soon," her senior said as she walked towards her.

Sasha nodded with glee. "Yes, I will go for lunch now."

She had been feeling her hunger pangs since earlier but she was trying her best to ignore them. It was not easy to ignore her stomach cries though. Each time her stomach growled, she had to bring her focus back to her bow and arrow, and tried to concentrate on her goal. Hence, to 'thank' her stomach for being patient with her, she decided to have her favourite strawberry ice-cream for dessert after lunch.

After buying her food and settling on an empty table near the glass window of the school canteen, she began digging in her baked potato, bacon and some peas. Her eyes wandered to the scene outside the canteen where she saw some athletes training out in the field and some students with green bandanas on their heads and harness strapped around the body cleaning the walls of the campus buildings. Even though it was semester break, it seemed that most students had to work hard for one reason or another during the holidays, just like her. She continued to stare at the students in a daze as she ate her food.

Out of a blue, trickles of water streamed down the glass window right in front of Sasha. Sasha snapped out of her trance as her eyes trailed the movement of the water trickling down quickly. Still unsure what was happening, a pair of feet suddenly tapped against the other side of the window pane and the body slowly descended from the top. Then, a girl's face came to Sasha's view. Sasha immediately recognised her and nearly spat out whatever was in her mouth, flabbergasted by what was in front of her.

"Mikasa!" she exclaimed and stood up, placing her hand on the window pane. "What are you doing?"

The girl from the other side of the window pane glanced down at Sasha, again, without any sign of being surprise or whatever emotion Sasha could think of if anyone had faced the same situation as her.

Mikasa waved at Sasha before using a windscreen wiper to wipe the water off the window pane. Seeing her wearing a green bandana around her head and the harness, Sasha finally understood why Mikasa came from above. She was cleaning the school buildings with her club members. She recalled Mikasa being in the Environmental Cleaning Club, a weird club that was created by a senior a year before. It was a five-man club back then but after some of the first-years from Sasha's cohort had joined this club, the club grew slightly bigger. It was a good thing though, if not the club could not have survived with such low membership. She had heard from Armin who was also from that club that they had to clean certain parts of the campus, including the classrooms, at least once a week. So far, she had not seen students from that club doing wall cleaning. Maybe because the walls did not have to be cleaned frequently. Since it was semester break, the club members might have the time to do a more thorough cleaning.

Sasha sat on her chair again and continued eating her lunch as she observed Mikasa cleaning the window right next to her. Not long after, another figure came down as well but was slightly further away from Mikasa. More water trickled down the window pane in front of the second person, Armin. The blonde started wiping the window pane with a ragged cloth while his eyes were staring at something above him. His mouth moved, talking to somebody above him. Curious, Sasha gazed upwards too but of course, she could not see anyone from her angle.

"Hey, Sasha."

Sasha shifted her gaze away from the scene outside to the person who was standing next to her table. Her eyes widened.

"Connie! Hey!" Sasha greeted happily as she scanned his attire from head to toe. "I see that you have football practice today."

Connie laughed as he dusted the back of his slightly dirtied jersey. "Tournament is around the corner. Our inter-school event is really big this time."

"What do you mean?"

Connie bent forward and rested his arm on the table as he lowered his voice, "I heard that the organisers planned our games in such a way that it looked like a real sport."

Sasha deadpanned, "Our sports are real, Connie. What are you even talking about?"

"I mean, you know the Olympics?" Connie said, earning a hesitant nod from his best buddy. "All the sports common across colleges and technical schools are coming together this time. That's why the main event is actually between 1st April to 21st April, 3 weeks. With various sports categories falling on certain days."

"Mine is on 5th April," Sasha said. "What about yours?"

"On the 4th."

"Holy! So close! I have to come no matter what!" the girl bubbled.

"No obligation, Sasha. If you have to leave early for practice, I won't even mind since your big day is the next day," Connie said bashfully, feeling happy that his friend wanted to watch his football match. "However, if my team gets into the quarter finals, I'm afraid that I won't be able to attend your competition… Sorry…"

"It's okay! But I really hope that you can get into the quarter finals and win all the matches." Sasha smiled. "I know you guys can make it as long as…" She pointed at Connie with a playful smirk. "... Connie's in the team."

"Woohoo!" Connie cheered and raised both arms in a victory pose, but soon laughed awkwardly. "Man, Sasha. I'm just an average player. I'm sure the team still plays well without me."

Sasha shook her head and beamed. "You know, out of every player in your team, you shine the brightest."

Connie frowned at her kind words as he pointed at his buzz cut hairstyle. "Is that a pun or something?"

"No, obviously not! How can I make a joke out of your head, Connie?!" Sasha retorted. "What I mean is that you, my dear friend, are actually more skilful than you think you are!"

Connie relaxed his eyebrows as he stared at Sasha with a light blush on his cheeks. He straightened his back and began scratching the back of his head.

"C'mon. You're flattering me. I'm not as good as you think I am."

Trying to motivate her friend, Sasha continued, "Connie, do you know... I like how you did those calf-catch-and-flick moves, and those mid-air tricks like the crossover taps and the rainbow kicks… I think they are very cool."

Connie looked surprised at how much Sasha knew those terms even though he seldom talked to her about his football practice. He knew that she would sometimes come to watch his practices and matches to give him support, but he had never thought that Sasha would actually know his sport well.

"You seem to know the names of those moves. Who taught you?" Connie marvelled.

"I asked," Sasha replied with a chuckle. "They were so cool that I had to know what they were called. So, I asked whoever was sitting at the side and watching the games with me."

Upon hearing that, the boy realised that his friend was not only supportive of him, but also interested in the sport he was engaged in. He was pleased to know that she cared.

With a soft chuckle, he muttered to himself, "Geez, Sasha."

 _Thud! Thud! Thud!_

Startled, Connie and Sasha turned to the window again and saw another person being lowered down in a haphazard manner with a long windscreen wiper in his hand. The wiper hit against the window pane many times as the person tried to regain his balance in mid-air, bringing the attention of everyone in the canteen to him.

Connie deadpanned at the sight of this person, "Damn Eren for being reckless as always. Even Mikasa and Armin do better than him in this."

Sasha giggled. As soon as Eren managed to stop swaying around and maintained safely at the spot, his eyes caught on Sasha's and Connie's stares. In fact, there were still people staring at him but being oblivious to his surroundings most of the time, he did not feel very embarrassed by the weird stares he was receiving. Rather, he was actually embarrassed by the fact that Mikasa was better than him in using this fall protection equipment. Why did she have to be better than him in almost everything? Her studies were better than him. Her sportsmanship was also better than him. She completed her work faster than him no matter what kind of tasks she was given. In terms of quality, that would be another topic to share about. Even before he was lowered down to clean the glass window with her and Armin, he had told her to watch him carefully because he was going to show her that he was better than her in this. But in the end, he had come down like a pathetic hero who could not even balance himself on his retractable lifeline attached to his harness.

Sasha waved to Eren with a smile and he waved back, reciprocating with a friendly and bashful smile. She realised that ever since that day in the amusement park, they were finally back together, in Sasha's term as friends. Not like they weren't friends after the museum trip. But it was more like the misunderstandings had been cleared up between them. They did not talk much after their trip to the amusement park though, except for some basic text messages exchanged between each other when Sasha had turned on her handphone after she had charged the battery.

He had sent her a text message asking her if she was fine and if she was still feeling bothered by the incident in the amusement park. She had replied him that she was fine and she was actually glad to talk to him again even though being stranded in mid-air was scary. Then, she asked if he was fine, which he had later replied that he was. 'Goodnight' words were exchanged and they never texted each other thereafter.

Eren shifted his gaze to someone above him as he tilted his head upwards and seemed to be speaking to the person. Without warning, Sasha saw his lifeline jerk and he was quickly pulled up, causing him to lose his balance again and be carried with his front totally facing down and his limbs dangling downwards in front of him. Sasha could see his face becoming grimmer before his entire body totally disappeared out of her view. Connie was staring at the whole scene in amusement although he was speechless by what was happening. Suddenly, a bespectacled girl with short silver hair slid down smoothly, holding a long windscreen wiper too and a green spray bottle. She looked furious as Connie and Sasha observed her mouth moving so rapidly as she spoke to Mikasa and Armin. Then, she sprayed some soapy liquid on the window and began wiping it clean. She looked up and started lashing to whoever above her, most probably Eren if there was no one with him at the top. Turning to Armin and Mikasa, she also seemed to be lashing out at them. Sasha and Connie could hear some noises behind the window but could barely hear what she said.

Then, the silver-haired girl threw the spray bottle towards Armin's direction in which he quickly ducked the fast flying object and Mikasa skillfully caught it with her free hand. Connie and Sasha gasped in awe and clapped for their friend, which was caught on by the bespectacled girl who instantly shot them a glare. After that, the girl tugged her lifeline and she was pulled up. Then, Eren came down again, in a less haphazard manner, with his windscreen wiper and two green spray bottles in an arm. He handed one bottle to Armin and the trio started to clean the window pane again with window cleaning detergents this time.

"By the way, Sasha."

Sasha turned to Connie again.

"Thank you for the encouragement," he added with a large grin. "I hope that you can make it to the finals too. You have worked very hard for this and it's your time to shine too."

"Thank you, Connie." Sasha knitted her eyebrows together and clenched her fists in determination, feeling touched and motivated by his words. "Let's win the games together!"

"Win the games together!" Connie echoed after her as he raised his fist in the air.

"Yesssss!" Sasha giggled and mimicked her friend's pose, raising her half-eaten baked potato in the air.

"Say, when will you be returning home during this holiday?" Connie asked as he took a seat opposite of Sasha. "I went back to our hometown two days ago. I coincidentally met your father while shopping with my mum at the market, and he asked me when you will be coming home. He misses you, Sasha. It has been nearly a year since you left our hometown."

"Soon, after this competition," Sasha replied as her hand slowly dropped to the table. "I have work almost every night, including Saturdays. Sunday is my only day I can rest and do some training by myself. I want to see Papa too, you know. He must be lonely without me." Sasha laughed weakly.

"Can't you take leaves?"

"I can… But I don't want to," Sasha replied, staring down at her plate solemnly. "I need money. I don't want to use Papa's money. Paying for my college fees is already enough. I don't want to take anymore from him."

Sasha bit into her potato and chewed slowly. Sensing that he could not go on with this topic, Connie decided to change the subject. He glanced outside the window, only to see three pairs of eyes staring down at them. But those eyes immediately gazed away when Connie noticed them. Eren was absent-mindedly cleaning the window, pressing the wiper so hard against the glass that Connie could hear squeaky sounds coming from the rubbing contact. On the other hand, Mikasa was cleaning the window with her wiper too but was not using as much strength as Eren. Armin was happily spraying the soapy liquid on every area of the window that was within his and Mikasa's reach. Just then, a new conversational topic struck Connie.

"Sasha, I heard from Krista that you girls agreed to have the party in your dormitory. Thanks for letting us hold it there," Connie said.

"No problem," Sasha responded, another smile came back.

At first, she did not agree to this request for the second time. She agreed with Ymir that cleaning up the common room and pantry would be a hassle before and after the party. Furthermore, the common toilet had to be cleaned up and tidied as well. But after Krista had tried convincing her that it would be cheaper to hold the party at their place and it was not like the visitors would enter the other rooms as and when they liked (because they had no reason to), Sasha finally agreed though reluctantly.

"Armin, Jean, Marco and I would be hanging out this weekend to buy some birthday stuffs for the birthday boy, and also order a big cake," Connie informed. "Do you want to tag along?"

Sasha's eyes brightened. "Sure! When?"

"You are free on Sunday, right? Perhaps Sunday afternoon?"

Sasha gave him a thumb up and said, "Okay. Keep me noted. I will ask Krista and Ymir if they want to come along too."

"Alright, sure. Seems like Mikasa will be the only one who will distract Eren from our plan…"

The two of them glanced out of the window again and smiled at Mikasa who was still cleaning the window next to their table. Upon noticing their gazes, Mikasa stopped cleaning and stared back in puzzlement. The black-haired girl narrowed her eyes at them, realising that the pair was suggesting something to her by the looks of their smiley faces. Her foot forcefully hit against the window, urging them to stop looking at her so weirdly or just speak out whatever they had on their minds.

"Connie, can they hear us from outside?" Sasha queried for assurance, although she knew that they could not hear their birthday discussion because they were talking softly to each other after all.

Connie looked at Sasha weirdly, not so sure if he should laugh at her question or not. "Of course not, Sasha. Even an idiot knows that."

-:-:-:-

Like any other Friday night shifts, Sasha was busy entertaining the customers at the counter again. Her legs were slightly sore after four days of intense training and she wanted to take a seat to rest her poor feet. Despite how tired she was, she still hung on with a polite smile as she attended to every customer. Hannah and Franz had left the store an hour ago after helping Levi with some administrative work, hence only Levi and Sasha were left to manage the store as usual. While Sasha stood at the frontline, her superior would be managing the stocks in the storeroom and on the shelf, as well as doing what seemed to be his 'favourite' pastime – cleaning black stains off the well-polished floor.

"Thank you for patronising with us. Have a good night," Sasha said to her last customer in the queue, giving him a small polite bow.

As soon as the customer left, Sasha's legs wobbled tiredly and she fell heavily on a chair behind her. She let out a soft yawn as she started massaging her aching thighs. Her eyes trailed to Levi who was using a cloth to wipe off those black marks left on the ground by the previous customer's' shoes. Sasha stared at the older man in disbelief.

"Not again," she blurted. "You can't be cleaning each time someone left their prints here, Levi."

"It's unsightly," he muttered, still trying to get rid of some stubborn dirt stuck between the tiles.

Sasha shook her head not because she disagreed with his answer, but rather, she was disagreeing with what he was doing. She knew that she had no right to say anything about his cleaning habit because he was her superior. There was also absolutely nothing wrong wanting to be clean. However, she felt that it was useless to keep trying to clean up after some people had left their dirt in their store. She would rather him clean up after a whole day of work as that would save more effort and time to do other things. She had told him her opinion before, but she was ignored and was even told to clean up the storeroom for talking too much.

When Levi was done wiping off the stains, he disappeared into the storeroom. Just then, a new customer in a white coat entered the store. For some reason, her facial features looked familiar to Sasha. The brunette squinted at the lady, trying to recall who this person was and where she had seen her. While Sasha was deep in her own thoughts, the lady took an empty cup from a shelf next to the counter and placed it in front of Sasha.

"Iced Cola Pop," the lady ordered with a grin as she pointed at the drinks dispenser behind Sasha. "Make it full, yeah?"

Sasha flinched and immediately responded to her request. She put the cup below the dispenser and pull the lever to let the shaved brown ice flow into the cup. After filling it with the said drink, she put a lid over the cup and inserted a straw before placing the cup on the counter again.

"That will be three dollars."

"Thanks, sweetie. Here," the lady said in a singsong voice as she handed the money to Sasha. "Are you having your school holidays now?"

Perplexed by the sudden question, Sasha nodded slightly. How did this woman know that she was having her school holidays? Was it obvious that she was a student? She did not remember telling her customers that she was a college student unless someone from this store had shared about her to the customers before. She wondered who.

The woman paid no attention to the girl's look of puzzlement. Her eyes scanned the store, slowly taking a sip from the cup. Then, her eyes landed on Sasha again.

"You work here alone? Family business?"

"No… I'm a part-timer. My superior is at the back of the store," Sasha replied, feeling extremely awkward and a little anxious.

The woman's lips formed into a little oval as she nodded. "It's my first time here. It's so close to the college so I just dropped by to get a drink. Didn't know I would see you here again."

"I'm sorry…" Sasha was totally lost and she had no idea what this lady was talking about. "May I know who you are?"

"Hmm?" The woman returned her a confused stare too. "To be honest, I don't know who you are too."

Sasha deadpanned, "Ah… I see."

"But I remember you."

The brunette frowned at the woman. Was she trying to mess with her mind or something? This woman did not know her, but she remembered her. That meant that they had definitely seen each other before. Furthermore, Sasha also found this woman familiar too. Sasha lowered her head and closed her eyes, trying to think even harder where she could have met this woman.

"Alexandra of Dauper."

Sasha's eyes snapped open upon hearing the very familiar name which she had already forgotten after the completion of her assignment. She looked up and watched the woman's movements intensely as the woman put down her drink and took out a pair of spectacles from the chest pocket of her white coat. It finally dawned on Sasha that she had certainly seen her before and even knew her name. But the name was on the tip of her tongue.

The woman swiftly put on her spectacles and then smiled at Sasha. "You are the one…"

* * *

 **Very long author's note (you can ignore it if you want):**

 **1) Hi! Thanks for reading this chapter! Writing archery scenes is challenging because I have no idea about the tournament rules. I had to consult Jun (the second owner of this account) about it because he plays the archery and is currently a team captain! Recently, he took part in an archery tournament but as an organiser. So, he is pretty familiar with the rules and how the games are conducted. I probably need Jun to help me check those archery scenes in the future :)**

 **2) I have posted a LeviXSasha one-shot (titled _Reject Me Properly_ ) last week. I want to thank my reviewers who have shared their opinions whether I should post it as a one-shot or a two-shot instead. If you are interested and haven't read that one-shot yet, please feel free to check it out! I will be very happy :D**

 **3) I am thinking to do more one-shots in the future because it seems easier to manage than writing a multi-chaptered story, considering the fact that college life is very hectic and I know that it can be upsetting to see a story taking a long time to be updated with a new chapter. With schoolwork and all, I take a long time to finish writing a chapter and the writing is so disappointing when I re-read what I have written (I have to edit again later when I am done with my assignments). As I have mentioned before, I have prepared a few chapters ahead in advance during my break. But if I post them every week like before, I will 'run out' of chapters to post for the next few months. So, I am sticking to my monthly update schedule instead (till the next break -yay-). Please bear with my slow updates for now. I'm so sorry :(**

 **4) I would like to thank _anon_ , _Ionie_ , _Lady Serai_ , _ilovejellybeans_ , _xXpurpleskiesXx_ , _aisasha_ , and _Kate Elizabeth Black_ for reviewing the previous chapter. You guys have made my day!**

* * *

 **Preview of Chapter 7:**

"Do you believe in the existence of titans living in the past?"

His eyes darkened as his gaze slowly made its way to Sasha who was also staring back at him, waiting for his answer. Instead of answering, Levi asked Sasha, "Do you believe in titans?"

 **See you again in the next chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

"Yup, this is the one I was talking about." Hange led the two boys to the entrance and pointed at the charcoal-sketched portrait. "Alexandra of Dauper."

"So, this picture was found together with that guy with an undercut hairstyle?" one of the boys clarified.

"Yes. Have you heard of the Ackerman?"

"Um… yeah? It's one of the less common family names in today's society… no, actually, since way back in the history," another boy answered thoughtfully. "There is this legend about the Ackerman family. It was once believed that those people were cursed with the blood of the devil, and they had super physical powers."

His friend gaped in surprise. "Wow. I can't imagine it. I haven't met an Ackerman in my life before, but it would be great to see if they really had super powers. Hmm… Real life superheroes, sounds cool, right?"

Hange chuckled, "They probably don't have super powers. Just a legend, and that man looked pretty human to me."

"That man? Who?"

"When I first started out this project, a man claimed to be from the Ackerman family handed me these two portraits," Hange began to explain. "They have been kept away in the basement of the main house. Both were kept nicely in frames. No story was shared and passed down. Judging by the attire worn by these two people, the man believed that they were part of the military who fought against the titans so he donated the portraits to me."

"Interesting. So, is that the reason why you have an inkling that the guy in that portrait was an Ackerman?" the second boy asked. "I mean, there must be a reason why the portraits were kept in the main Ackerman house."

Hange knitted her eyebrows together and gazed away. "Yeah, I guess…"

"Time's up! We have to switch galleries now," Hange's assistant suddenly said loudly, calling the attention of everyone in the gallery. "We shall be heading to the Weaponry gallery."

"Aww, we have to go now," the first boy groaned and turned to face Hange again. "Thanks for the information, Dr Hange. I hope you can find out more about these cool people who fought with the titans."

The second boy nodded and waved to her. "Yeah, thanks, Dr Hange. See you later."

When the two boys were about to leave the gallery with the other students, a girl with long brown hair ran passed Hange, calling out the two boys' names. Hange recognised the girl as she was the one who had barged into the gallery without warning. She had stood at the entrance, staring at the portrait of Alexandra of Dauper for quite a long time before making her way to the other parts of the room. The boys turned around upon hearing their names being called, and one of them started teasing her while the other boy was trying to stop his friend from making the girl angry.

"Come on, Jean. Don't pick a fight with Sasha, okay?"

Then, the boys and the girl disappeared from her view. _Such adorable youths._ With arms akimbo, Hange smiled to herself. She waited for the last group to enter the gallery and when the students came in, she started her session again. While walking around the gallery to speak to different students, she saw two dark coloured hair students looking at the portrait near the entrance. The male was pointing at the picture with a deep frown and was saying something to the girl. The girl just shrugged. Curious, Hange approached them and interrupted their conversation.

"Hey, do you have any question?" Hange asked the pair.

The girl turned to Hange and quickly replied, "No."

The scientist mentally dismissed the cold reply she received from the girl, and started her usual talk, "Well... this picture..."

"Come on, Eren. Let's go somewhere else instead," the girl spoke to the boy next to her and pulled his arm away from the entrance.

The boy's eyes were fixated on the portrait with a deep frown remained on his face. He brushed off the girl's hand and took a step closer to the portrait.

"I swear... I have seen this picture before..." he muttered to himself. "I don't know why... Mikasa..." He finally shifted his gaze from the portrait to the girl, looking troubled. "I feel like I..."

"It is just an ugly drawing of someone," the girl interjected and grasped his arm again. "This is just an art piece done by someone in the past. It is impossible for you to have seen it before. So, don't confuse yourself."

"But Mikasa..."

Before he could continue, the girl forcefully pulled him away to join another group of students. Hange crossed her arms and stared at the two of them suspiciously. She wanted to know if that boy had really seen this picture before. If this picture and the other picture were really stuck in the basement of an Ackerman's house, together with the fact that this boy had seen it, might there be a possibility that he was part of the Ackerman family? Seeing that girl's strange way of reacting to the boy, it seemed as if she was trying not to touch the subject. Perhaps she knew something about the picture. Hange had seldom gotten wrong with her guesses and intuition, and she made sure that she would have to speak to them about it again. Somehow.

Like a hawk, her eyes secretly followed the two students from afar while engaging with some talks with the other students, trying not to be obvious with her staring although a student noted that her mind seemed to be elsewhere. Hange dismissed what the person had said and continued her staring-stalking game as she went on with her talk like a programmed robot. Finally, she saw the girl moved away from the boy and joined the other girls looking at the portrait of Queen Historia. Without further ado, Hange scooted towards the green-eyed boy and greeted him.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Uh, Eren," he replied, looking rather perplexed at Hange.

"Oh, Eren." She nodded. "I have a few questions. Do you mind me asking you?"

The boy shook his head. "Go on. What do you want to ask me?"

"It's about the portrait over there." Hange pointed at the portrait near the entrance. "By chance, have you seen it somewhere before? Sorry that I overheard that you think you have seen it before. But I would like to know more about it."

"Ah, that," the boy mumbled as his eyes darkened at the sight of the portrait. "I have never seen that portrait before. Sorry for the misunderstanding."

"No, it's alright." Hange sighed softly. "As you can see, that picture belonged to the Ackerman family. It was kept in the basement of the main house for many centuries. So, I was surprised to know that someone else had seen this portrait."

"Ackerman?"

"Yes."

The boy looked away, rubbing his palm at the back of his neck.

"Sorry. I don't know the Ackerman family, not even have I ever heard of that house. The only person..."

"Eren," a female voice cut in. "Come and see Queen Historia."

Hange and Eren turned around and looked at the girl standing behind them with the most unreadable expression they had ever seen.

"Come and see Queen Historia," she repeated monotonously. "Eren."

"I'm not interested," the boy said in a low voice as he hid his hands behind his back as if he did not want to be dragged away by her again.

"You used to say that she was pretty in those black-and-white pictures in our history books. Now's the chance to see how she really looked like in painting," the girl urged on, reaching out to his arm.

"I didn't say that! Since when?!" the boy said exasperatedly as he swiftly turned his back towards Hange, trying to hide his arms out of her reach.

But the girl was quicker. She moved forward and held him by his elbow. With a tug, she circled her palm over his elbow and gave him a small smile.

"Connie said that she looks like Armin. You have to check it out."

"Are you serious?" the boy exclaimed loudly as his eyes suddenly brightened up. "Okay then. I will check it out."

Then, the two of them left Hange again.

Later that week, Hange received a call from Professor Shadis, asking her if she was interested to know what the students had written for their reflection journals. Of course, she agreed. She wanted to know if her session was informative and she wanted to see things from a different perspective. For many years, she believed in the existence of titans even though they were no evidence to support her belief. She could only rely on ancient drawings and other artifacts which she also believed to be linked to the existence of the titans. Her first inspiration to work on this project was after she had come across an article about Queen Historia on the internet.

In history books, the queen's name was mentioned a few times about her involvement in politics and her contribution to the change in her country. She had reformed the government and after she had stepped down, the society was ruled by the democrats. Nothing much about her involvement in the military and titans was known at that time and furthermore, Hange was not interested in history. Biology was her cup of tea and she was all along a biologist. However, one fateful day while Hange was finding some articles about abnormal growths in humans on the internet, she saw a link caption at the side bar of a random website that she had clicked on. It was captioned like this: ' _Were titans just legends? How were they related to the last queen? Click here to find out more!_ '.

After reading that online article, Hange was instantly spurred on to find out more about the titans and the military which was involved in killing them. For someone who had never taken any interest in history, her family members and peers, including Hange herself, found it strange that the biologist had a sudden interest in something so vague that even historians and archeologists could not prove. However, Hange's heart at that time was screaming in excitement and curiosity, telling her to dive into this mystery and the missing events of the past. Hange had sought for the author of that article but she could not find the person. Regardless, she had started her fieldwork and collected various artifacts. One thing that troubled her during her research was: if titans had existed in the past, why wasn't there any physical trace of their existence? Even dinosaurs left solid evidence behind.

On the following Friday, Hange dropped by the college to see Professor Shadis in his office. The professor had read through the reflection journals and commented to the scientist that most students had written some insightful things in their reflections. He felt that Hange should read them because researching the 'nothingness' was indeed tough and might seem fruitless at the end of the day.

"I am very open to the idea of titans' existence way back in history, Dr Hange. It was my first time bringing students to your museum and I have to say, I am very intrigued by your research too," Professor Shadis spoke in a serious tone as he placed the stack of reflection journals on his desk in front of Hange. "Spending seven over years searching for the missing puzzles isn't easy. I admire this inquisitive motivation that you have as a researcher. I'm pleased to know that you are making some progress."

Hange chuckled bashfully. "I wouldn't have made it to this day without your guidance, to be honest. The one who approved the initial research was you, Professor. That time, I was just a noob-biologist who was trying to venture into historical stuff. It was hard to find professors who would be willing to supervise me in this study. Then, one day, I received a mail that Professor Keith Shadis wanted to supervise me in my research. Oh boy, I was so happy. Like wow, does this professor believe in titans?"

"To be honest, I didn't believe at that time," the professor cleared his throat as soon as he said that. "I just wanted to test you. To see how far you could go. I thought that you wouldn't make it. I'm sorry for saying this, Dr Hange. But you have proven me wrong. You have found something, although substantial, and presented your first thesis paper here. Now, I see that you have conducted various public seminars about your new findings every year. It's impossible to say that I don't believe in titans now. Though there is no solid proof yet, I can actually see the puzzles slowly connecting with one another."

Feeling touched, Hange's tears welled up in her eyes. She took out her business card and handed to Professor Shadis. The professor took the card and stared quizzically at the woman, not understanding why she had given him her business card out of the blue.

"If you ever feel sick of your students or feel like quitting your job, you can always come and work with me in my research on titans. I will be very happy to have you in my research again. I believe that you can help me to find more of these puzzles."

Professor Shadis furrowed his brows and smiled rigidly at his former student. "I'm honoured, Dr Hange. But I'm never sick of my students."

Hange covered her mouth as she let out a soft squeal. This time, a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Despite all those scoldings and head clampings, you actually love us?"

"What are you even..."

"I love you too, Professor. You should have just told everyone that you love them, so they will love you too," Hange went on with a sniff as she wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her white coat.

Professor Shadis narrowed his eyes at her and muttered, "I didn't peg you as someone so dramatic. What's with all the crying and the love-love thing? Don't be ridiculous. My hair is standing."

Hange stifled a laugh. "The only hair standing I see is your beard."

"You?!"

"Just kidding," she immediately interjected with a goofy grin. "Well then, I shall take a look at the reflection journals now. It's going to be interesting."

"Take your time. I will be heading out for awhile."

With that said, the professor took his empty mug and left the office. Hange picked up the first paper and started skimming through the essay. After half an hour, Hange had skim-read almost one-quarter of the stack and had come across a few weird sentences from a reflection journal, which earned a big red cross beside those sentences.

 _That drawing made me sad. An unspeakable feeling overwhelmed me all of the sudden as soon as I stepped into the gallery. Her portrait was just right next to me. Many would not have noticed it but I had. The impressions on the paper were the heartfelt cries of the artist for that female soldier. His cries were heard but could never reach her. The promise once made was never fulfilled. Out of all other portraits in the gallery, this portrait had impacted me the most. Although the sketch was ugly, the whole art itself was beautiful. It reflected his pain, his lost, and his anger towards the cause of her death. And I felt like I was the artist at that moment, missing her._

Hange did not remember saying or indicating that this female soldier had already died when this portrait was drawn. Neither did she mention that the artist was a male. Whichever kid who wrote had a great imagination. Hange was amazed by how absorbed this student was just by looking at a portrait. He or she would make an interesting art critic. Just as she was about to flip to the cover page to check for the name of the student, she heard a creak coming from the office door behind her. She immediately put the paper aside and turned to Professor Shadis who just came in with a mug of hot coffee refilled.

"Sorry for taking a long time. Was held back by a student," he apologised and took a seat at the opposite side of the desk. "So, how is the reading so far?"

"Interesting!" she answered with a large beam. "Can I recruit them for my research?"

"Sure."

Hange gasped. "Really? I have more business cards with me. Please give those out to them, yeah?"

"May their stupidness and naivety enlighten you."

The scientist rolled her eyes with a scoff. "You are mean. I was just kidding."

"You can tell that they weren't interested in titans. All their reflections were about what they saw and what they thought was interesting. Some wrote absolute rubbish. They won't make good titan researchers."

"What can you expect from the first year students? Furthermore, this is just a reflection. Not an in-depth analysis on the topic itself." Hange took a random paper and randomly pointed at a paragraph to show the professor. "True, you have told them to analyse the artifacts. But realistically, they couldn't analyse without having much knowledge about this. I do not have enough proofs to show them either. They don't believe in what I believe. So, it's normal to hold no interest in something that does not seem to exist."

The professor kept his silence as he stared at the scientist with a frown.

Nevertheless, Hange continued, "Don't get me wrong, Professor Shadis. I'm not saying that your approach isn't good. It is just that you can't expect much from this field trip. Honestly, I was surprised that you wanted to bring your students to my museum. There aren't much to see in the first place."

"I wanted to see. There are so much to see after seven years," the professor said in a softer voice. "The purpose of bringing my students to this field trip wasn't just about knowing your research, Zoë."

Hange inhaled deeply at the sound of the name which he had used to call her when she was a student.

"I wanted to broaden their perspectives, including yours," he added with a brief small smile. "This is the last thing I could do... as a teacher, as a mentor in this field."

-:-:-:-

"Alexandra of Dauper."

She was sure of it. The girl who had suddenly barged into the room and kept staring at the portrait. Hange leaned forward and rested her arm on the counter, smiling sweetly at the cashier. The girl's head bounced up and her brown eyes widened in shock. Her eyebrows were also knitted so tightly, showing hints of anxiety. For a moment, Hange thought that she had pronounced the name wrongly or had said a taboo word because of the look this girl was giving her.

"You were the one..."

"I wasn't," came a quick reply. "I'm Sasha Braus."

"Yes, right. Sasha. Now that I remember hearing your name," Hange said, flicking her thumb and finger together. "What I was trying to say is that I remember you staring at Alexandra's portrait."

"Oh."

The girl relaxed upon hearing that, and a weak grin slowly made its way to her face. Then, she laughed weakly as she scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Sorry. I thought you were looking for someone else," Sasha quickly came out with an excuse to hide her embarrassment. "I'm also sorry to say this, I know that you are the researcher whom we met at the Titan Museum but I can't recall your name." Sasha plastered a smile as she held out her hand towards Hange. "May I know your name, please?"

Hange glanced down and wrapped both hands around her extended hand, giving her a rapid handshake. Sasha was startled by her questionable warm and enthusiastic gesture, feeling unsure about what to respond next even as Hange held her hand even tighter.

"Hange Zoë! Call me Dr Hange!" the older woman enthused. "Don't feel sorry for not remembering my name, okay? Not like I can also remember the names of the people I only met once."

"Sure..."

"Wait. Here's my name card." Hange took out her business card from her chest pocket and cheerfully handed it to Sasha who blindly accepted it. "It was said that if you stare at a word for seven seconds, the word will be etched in your mind forever. So, if you stare at my name for seven seconds, will you remember my name for life-"

Her enthuse was interrupted by a colourful object that suddenly appeared between them and flew downwards, hitting both Sasha's and Hange's hands which were holding onto that business card. The ladies immediately let go of the card and withdrew their hands in response as their eyes locked on the colourful feathery object. It was a feather duster.

"What shit are you telling her, you shitty four-eyed woman?"

They turned their heads and looked at the angry store manager who was wearing a white mask, a folded yellow handkerchief covering his head, and a black apron around his waist. He brought the feather duster over his shoulder as he stared hard at Hange. Hange raised an eyebrow at him before turning to Sasha.

"Cleaner?"

Alarmed, Sasha corrected her in a whispering high-pitched voice that sounded anxious, "He's my store manager, Dr Hange!"

With a click on his tongue, Levi pulled down his mask and took a step forward towards Hange. Hange gulped and moved backwards in a cautious manner. She did not mean to anger the store manager. But it was extremely strange that a store manager would dress up like that! The shorter man brought the feather duster down and pointed at the business card on the ground.

"Are you trying to recruit my worker? That's playing dirty," he grunted. "I bet seven seconds wouldn't be enough for Braus to even remember your name, Shitty Four Eyes. She couldn't even remember not to steal food from the shelves after telling her not to hundreds of times."

"I didn't steal, okay?! I paid for them!" Sasha retorted.

"I get the 'Four Eyes', but I'm not shitty!" Hange crossed her arms and continued, "And I'm just trying to be nice to Sasha. Not recruiting her, I can assure you."

"Yeah, right. I'm so convinced," he muttered sarcastically. "You were touchy-feely with my worker."

"What do you mean by touchy-feely? I only held her hand. Geez! We only just met and you are already so rude!" Hange said to Levi before turning to Sasha with a feign sad look. "Why is he so mad? It wasn't my fault that I mistook him for a cleaner, was it? Isn't he the strange one who thinks I'm recruiting you? We were just chatting. Right, Sasha?"

Right after she had said the triggering statements, the feather duster flew between her and Sasha again.

"The only strange one here is you, Shitty Four Eyes."

"Wait, Levi. She didn't do anything to me!" Sasha defended for Hange as she reflexively grasped onto the feather duster and pulled it towards her, but Levi's tight hold did not allow the feather duster to leave his palm. "And she's our customer too. So, please don't scare her."

Then, Sasha turned to Hange and said apologetically, "Dr Hange, I'm sorry. Recently, there was this person who came to our store twice to promote his company to our coworkers, trying to get them to join his company. Levi wasn't around at those times. When Levi heard about it, he was very unhappy. So, please forgive him for being rude. He is just concerned about his workers, that's all."

"Oh, if that's the case… I can understand…"

As Hange said that, the feather duster was pulled out of Sasha's hand instead. Levi brought it to his side and looked at Sasha, still frowning.

"Who is she?" he asked her.

"Dr Hange? She's a researcher. Do you remember that I went on a field trip last Friday?"

He nodded slightly.

Sasha continued to explain, "We went to the Titan Museum, and Dr Hange works there. She studies about historical stuff relating to titans. A really nice person, in fact! It is a coincidence that we met again today."

Levi's frown ceased and a soft, quick 'oh' escaped his lips. Taking this moment of peace and understanding as her chance to make a move, Hange scooted over the counter and brought the cup close to her chest in a stealthy manner. While her eyes never left Levi, she took out another business card and held it in front of Levi.

"Not trying to recruit you, okay? But if you are ever interested in titans and my research, please feel free to drop by my museum. The entrance fee is pretty low. I don't charge too much for people I know," Hange stated with a smile.

Levi took the card and said, "I don't know you."

Ignoring what he had said, Hange went on asking him, "Do you believe in the existence of titans living in the past?"

The man shifted his gaze from the business card to the taller woman. His eyes darkened as his gaze slowly made its way to Sasha who was also staring back at him, waiting for his answer.

Instead of answering, Levi asked Sasha, "Do you believe in titans?"

"Eh?" Sasha was taken aback by his sudden question, but she immediately replied him, "I think I do."

"Why?"

"It just… I… I don't know, actually…" Sasha glanced at Hange, looking perplexed. "Perhaps the field trip to Hange's museum has made me believe in their existence."

Sasha looked down and stared at the ground as if it was suddenly very interesting to look at. A part of her still did not believe in titans because she had always been growing up thinking that titans were just part of a myth. Another part of her, somewhere back in her mind, was telling her that they had once existed. Moreover, the weirdest thing was that there were times when she felt like she was part of the 'myth' that should not have existed. They came to her like nightmares.

"I don't believe in titans."

Sasha looked up and saw her senior making a solemn face towards her. She did not know what had happened but she could feel her heart clenching and a lump forming in her throat as sadness suddenly came upon her. As her hands were behind the counter, no one noticed that her hands were trembling slightly. They were also gradually growing numb for some reason unknown even to herself. In her mind, she repeatedly asked herself what was wrong with her and why she was feeling anxious and down out of nowhere.

Levi looked at Hange and said to her, "I don't want to believe in them."

"Why not?" she heard Hange ask disappointedly.

Sasha covered her mouth as tears began to form on her lower eyelids. She felt something moving up her chest to her throat. Her nose began to sting in pain, not just her eyes.

"If they do, I will hate them," she heard his rather soft but vehement reply.

 _I will kill all of them._

 _I have to save him. If not, he will-_

Sasha bent over and coughed violently, startling both Hange and Levi as they turned their gazes back to her. She felt like throwing up there and then. Her tears dropped to the ground as she tried to suppress the thick and heavy pressure in her throat.

"Sasha, are you okay?"

Her ears began to buzz, blocking the sound of external voices. Everything seemed quite muffled and she couldn't exactly hear what Hange had said. She let out another heavy cough, this time sounding like she was gagging on something.

"Braus..."

As if on cue, the young brunette jolted and left the counter in a hurry. She ran into the dark storeroom and headed to a small cubicle where a squatting toilet was. She bent over and removed her hands from her mouth. Her fist thumped against her chest repeatedly as she coughed again and again, forcing whatever thing that was stuck in her throat upwards. She heard heavy footsteps coming her way, eliciting a wave of adrenaline rush through her veins.

This time, she could see it. An image flashed before her eyes. A giant with a large jaw ran clumsily towards him as he fought with the other giants bigger than him. The giant sank his teeth into his shoulder and pulled his flesh out while the latter let out a thunderous roar. He was in pain. He did not deserve all these pain he was living. She was weak, weaker than him, and did not deserve him either. As she tightened her fists, she imaged herself holding onto a pair of long blades and rushing to his aid. What came next was an abrupt collision against a hard flying object and she was 'swatted' away like a fly. She flew a couple of metres away and crashed into a window, shattering the glass beneath her back as she landed on the wooden floor of an abandoned house. Her back hurt so much that she could not move an inch. If she moved, her flesh would tear.

No, she had to help him. He would die. There were way too many mindless titans he could handle. Even if he was the strongest, she could not leave him in danger. Then, she forced herself up, groaning loudly in pain. While she was making her way to the window with her broken blades, a giant eye appeared and peeped through that window, looking straight at her like a prey. She could see her own fuzzy reflection on that glassy blue iris. She took a step back with a weak nervous laugh. This couldn't be the end yet. She had so many things to do, so she could not die yet. Letting out a scream of resolve, she gripped her blades harder and charged towards the eye, pointing the blades at it. She managed to pierce the eye but much to her horror, the giant retreated and pulled her out of the house through that broken window as she was still holding onto the blades. She was literally hanging from its eye. Then, she felt something wrap around her body and forcefully pulled her away from her blades. Everything happened so fast and before she knew it, she was staring into a dark red cave of dripping saliva with white molars lined up so nicely on both sides.

 _Is this it?_

"Sasha!"

A man's voice.

With one final cough and a terrible contraction of her stomach, a gush of pale yellow creamy chyme surged up her throat and spluttered out of her mouth into the toilet bowl. It seemed like a never ending vomit to Sasha as her stomach clenched a few more times to expel the pungent substance out of her body before she calmed down. The stomach-acid stench of vomit filled her nostrils which were already dripping with a mixture of mucus and chyme. As if her legs had finally given up on her after all the intense training and this sickening gut feeling, her legs wobbled and she fell sideways. She had expected herself to land on something hard. Instead, she felt a pair of hands catch her shoulders and slowly bring her body down where her bottom gently rested on the cool tile while her back leaning against someone's body. A body that was slightly broader than hers. It felt so warm and comforting that a soft whimper left her throat.

In between her heavy pants, Sasha closed her eyes, letting her tears fall, and said weakly, "Let me go... You will... get dirty... Levi..."

She felt his hands left her shoulders. Her ears were still buzzing and her vision had so many black spots when she opened her eyes again. Feeling her consciousness slowly being swept away, her upper eyelids gradually lowered and her fists that were holding the imaginary blades finally relaxed. At the very last moment before she became unconscious, she felt an arm wrap around her body and something rough yet warm gently touched her right cheek. She heard a male voice sounding through her ear amidst the buzzing sound. However, she had no idea what he had just said.

In the end, she could not come to _him_. _Is this it?_

* * *

 **Hi! Thank you for reading this chapter! This chapter was very Hange-focused as you can see because she would play a slightly bigger role in the later chapters. The following few chapters would be quite focused on Sasha and some of her weird dreams (in more depth). New characters relating to the Ackerman family will emerged too, but much later! Will they explain why the portrait of Alexandra was found in the main house of the Ackerman family? :)**

 **I would like to thank _Kate Elizabeth Black_ for reviewing the previous chapter!**

 **Preview of Chapter 8:**

Just then, she heard a soft sniff behind those palms. That was the final straw. Finding herself falling on her knees in front of Eren, Mikasa covered her face with her palms too and hot tears began spilling out of her eyes. History seemed to repeat itself. Seeing him hurting reminded her of the hellish torture she had to get through a long time ago. She thought that the loop had ended. But it seemed that the never ending cycle of grief still carried on in hers and Eren's lives.

 _Stop drawing already! You will only be hurt even more!_

 _I can't! I can't… because… I miss her so much!_

"After so many years, why… why…" she sobbed softly. "All I want is for you to be happy again… Eren."


	8. Chapter 8

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

"Mikasa, can you please call Eren to come out for dinner? I have called him hundreds of times, yet he didn't respond to me!"

While laying the clean plates on the kitchen table, Mikasa replied her adoptive mother, Carla, with a small nod, "Okay."

"Geez. He's always locking himself in his room ever since holidays started. He didn't come and say hi to me when I got home," Carla grumbled as she opened the lid of the rice cooker and used a rice paddle to mix the freshly cooked rice. "Is he playing computer games again?"

"I don't know, Mother. He doesn't let me in."

Carla stopping mixing the rice and glanced at Mikasa worriedly. "Come to think of it. Recently, he doesn't talk much to us. I wonder if there is anything wrong… something that he could not tell us…"

Mikasa shrugged. "He seems fine in school yesterday when we were cleaning the school. But, Mother, don't worry. I will try to talk to him again later."

"Thank you, Mikasa." Carla smiled at her daughter tenderly before turning her attention to the room situated at one corner of the living room with a suspicious stare. "Wait. Don't tell me… Eren is actually going through that phase."

"What phase?"

Mikasa's eyebrows rose in curiosity. Her mother stuck out her lower lip and stabbed the rice paddle into the pot of rice, gripping the paddle tighter while narrowing her eyes at that locked door.

"That phase which almost all boys will go through," the woman uttered in a low voice. "I am going to find out when he is not home!"

Mikasa did not understand what she was talking about. She knew a phase which almost every teenager (not all) would go through, and that was the rebellious phase. Eren was pretty rebellious when he was in middle school, always wanting to seek independence and turned a deaf ear to his parents' advice. His parents would tell him to do something, but he would do otherwise. When his father wanted him to study medicine in another college after completing his high school, Eren rejected this idea and went ahead to apply the course which they were currently studying without his parents' knowledge. Carla had only found out about it when she received a mail from their college, congratulating Eren and Mikasa for being accepted. Her husband was very upset that he chose to study humanities and social sciences instead of medicine. He wished that Eren would become a doctor like him and his eldest son. As for Mikasa, he wished that she would also study medicine or nursing like Carla, however, both parents knew that Mikasa would always choose something similar to Eren.

"He isn't hiding porno-stuffs, is he? He better not do anything weird in his room!"

Mikasa could hear her mother muttering angrily to herself. _Porno?_ Mikasa's eyes darkened. She also wanted to find out too. If Eren was looking at such sinful materials, she would definitely make Eren wash his eyes with soap and then watch her burn those materials in a huge fire.

"I will go and get him now," Mikasa said grimly, rolling up her sleeves like she was preparing herself for a fight. _Show no mercy to perverts even if it is Eren!_

Mikasa made her way to the doorstep of Eren's bedroom and knocked heavily on the door a few times. There was no reply. She wrapped her hand around the round knob and tried turning it, but it was locked.

"Eren! Hurry up and open up the door! Dinner time!" she raised her voice as she knocked the door even harder. "You better not be looking at disgusting materials!"

Still, there was no reply. She furrowed her eyebrows in concern while her anger and curiosity began to cease. Something was definitely not right. She turned to look at Carla who was also looking back at her, and pointed at the doorknob. Knowing what she meant, Carla nodded in agreement. Then, Mikasa walked hurriedly into her parents' bedroom and pulled open the drawer next their bed. She rummaged through the items and took out a chain of keys.

"I'm sorry, Eren. I have to do this," she sighed heavily to herself as she walked out of her parents' room with the keys in her hand.

When she was at his doorstep again, her fingers ran through the keys before picking the master key that had the label 'home' and inserted it into the knob. With a click, she pushed open the door carefully and peeped into the room. The computer was turned on but no one was using it. The bed was a mess, filled with unfolded clothes and crushed white papers all over it. Even the floor next to the bed had crushed papers. Hiding at the other side of the bed was the boy secretly doing something, which could not be seen from Mikasa's view, in a crouching position on the floor. She saw the back of his head bobbing behind the mattress while the rest of his body stayed hidden. Clearing her throat, Mikasa walked in and knocked her knuckles against the wardrobe to make herself known to her brother.

"What are you doing on the floor like that?" she asked.

This time, the boy noticed her and his head sprung up, turning his head to look at her. His green eyes widened at the sight of Mikasa and his hands started crushing something beneath him.

"Mikasa! What are you…!"

Mikasa frowned and interjected, "I knocked. Mother called you many times, but you didn't reply. What are you doing?"

"Nothing!"

"Why is your room in a mess? What's with all these papers?" she questioned in an interrogative manner as she slowly headed towards his bed. "These are not porno, righ-"

"Obviously not!" Eren blushed deep red as he shouted in defense. "Get out now, okay! There is a reason why I locked my room! So, don't go around opening it without my permission."

Mikasa frowned harder at his response. She stomped towards the bed and picked up one of the crushed papers, earning another yell from Eren.

"Don't touch them!"

Eren stood up quickly and lurched forward to take the paper out of Mikasa's hand. While he was so focused on Mikasa, he had forgotten that the bed was right in front of him so he tripped over and fell flat on his bed. Some of the crushed papers bounced off the bed and rolled on the floor. When he pushed himself up groaning, he saw Mikasa uncrumpling the paper and her face became emotionless. The frown that was previously on her face, wrinkling her forehead, was no longer there. Her eyes slowly trailed to Eren's anxious face, not saying anything to him. She dropped the paper and picked up another crushed paper that was next to her feet.

"Hey, Mikasa… Enough of it, alright? I told you already… please don't touch the papers," his voice quivered in a softer voice.

Not listening to his pleas, Mikasa uncrumpled the paper and looked at it again. It was almost the same thing. She threw the paper on the floor and faced Eren with a solemn look on her porcelain white face. Eren got out of his bed and stood among the crushed papers around his feet with his head hung low like a child getting ready to be punished.

"I'm sorry, Mikasa."

"What are you sorry for?" Mikasa asked in a low voice.

Eren closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh, "All these."

The girl looked down too and stared at the papers which she had just uncrumpled. Her heart ached incredibly at the sight of the papers. It reminded her of those times when _he_ sat on the floor next to _his_ bed, drawing the face of someone so hopelessly on a parchment paper as _he_ repeated the strokes over and over again. It was a never-ending hell and emotional torture to her. She knew that she could not keep to herself any longer. He would find out eventually. She should have told him not to leave his tutorial halfway to attend the field trip. She could have been the one attending it and helping him with his reflection journal after that. But he was so insistent on going.

" _It is not really compulsory, right? Armin can lend me his notes, so it's fine if I skip this! Are Jean and Marco going?... Connie too?... What about Sasha?... Hmm… I think I will go, Mikasa."_

"Even after so long, you are still thinking about that portrait?" she asked in disbelief and walked towards Eren. "I told you not to think about it already! Why are you-"

"I can't stop, okay? I can't stop thinking about that picture, Mikasa!" the boy interrupted her with an annoyed tone as he looked up at her, staring into her grey eyes. "I swear I have seen that picture before. I don't know where I have seen it, but I think that I did!"

Furious, Mikasa grabbed him by his shoulders and said, "No, you have never seen it before. Never. It was never found until it fell into that researcher's hands."

"You don't understand, Mikasa." Eren lowered his head again and weakly shrugged, trying to get Mikasa's hands off him. "I feel like… I'm breaking apart… A part of me just feels missing. I don't know what is wrong with me... I have to get this out of my head. I need to find out why that picture is haunting me."

"You are just confused, Eren. It is impossible for you to have seen it before. Besides, you have no reason to feel this way."

Eren let out another heavy sigh as he plopped down on his bed, causing more crumpled papers to drop on the floor. He covered his face with his palms and let his elbows rest on his knees. He sat there like this for a couple of seconds while Mikasa scanned the messy floor with a forlorn look. Her gaze fell upon another half-crushed paper on which a chicken-sketch of a person's face could be seen. He had already drawn too many of the same person whom he had never met before. Her eyes were stinging and her head was hurting. She did not want to see Eren doing this again. She wanted to throw these papers out and make him forget about what had happened. If all these papers were pornography, it would have been easier to deal with than _this_.

"Eren. Please stop."

"I can't…"

"Yes, you can," she insisted firmly. "Because… there is no connection between you and that portrait."

Eren lowered his head even more and dug his fingers into his hair. "I know, but I-"

Mikasa bent down and held on his shoulders again, giving him a hard shake. "You don't know who that woman was and she was dead 2000 over years ago. That portrait was also drawn a long time ago, so obviously, you have nothing to do with it. Nothing, Eren. Please get a grip on yourself!"

Just then, she heard a soft sniff behind those palms. That was the final straw. She had enough of this. Finding herself falling on her knees in front of Eren, she covered her face with her palms too and hot tears began spilling out of her eyes. Mikasa seldom cried. Ever since her parents had left her again, she had stopped crying over something so repetitive and trivial. History seemed to repeat itself while fate seemed to be playing with her all over again. Seeing Eren hurting over a portrait reminded her of the hellish torture she had to get through a long time ago. She thought that she had finally gotten out of it, living happily in a new family and a new life with the Jaegers. She thought that the loop had ended. But it seemed that the never-ending cycle of grief still carried on in her life. Hers and Eren's lives.

 _Stop drawing already! You will only be hurt even more!_

 _I can't! I can't… because… I miss her so much!_

"After so many years, why… why…" she sobbed softly, ensuring that the boy in front of her wouldn't hear her what she said. "All I want is for you to be happy again… Eren."

-:-:-:-

"Sasha!"

A sharp blade flew passed her, slicing the gigantic hand that was wrapped around her body. The fingers were ripped apart and blood splattered all over her body, including her face which was already drenched in her perspiration. She felt a human's arm wrap around her abdomen and pulled her out of the dark cave. The next moment she realised that she was back on the ground as her saviour lay her next to a large barrel that was in front of a small rundown house.

"Wait here. I will finish it off," her saviour said, turning to look at her. "I will be right back."

"No." She pointed towards her south and cried desperately, "Please go to him! He is being attacked by a group of titans! You have to help him! He can't do this alone!"

"But you're hurt..."

"I'm fine! I can manage this," she assured and lightly pushed her saviour forward. "Now go. Save him!"

"I will come back soon," her saviour said again and handed a blade to her. "Please stay safe, Sasha."

Then, her saviour took off. With only one blade and one precise slice on the back of the giant's neck, the huge creature fell onto the ground and smoke evaporated out of its body. Her saviour jumped onto a nearby roof and took one last look at her on the ground. They exchanged gazes for a moment before she nodded at her saviour. The saviour's dark eyebrows knitted together, showing some reluctance to leave her alone in a terrible state. The saviour finally looked away, held on the blade tightly, and leaped through the air with the vertical equipment. When the person had disappeared from Sasha's view, she stood up and made her way towards the direction where her saviour had gone. She wanted to hide somewhere safe where no man-eating giants could find her. But that would wound her pride as a soldier. Even if she could survive this mission, she would live in guilt for being a soldier who had hidden herself while others were fighting and dying. She did not want to live the rest of her life like that. She wanted to be a protector till the very end. Therefore, she had to continue fighting even if she had no chance of winning alone.

Each step she took was torture. The glass shards were still stuck on her back while some were stabbed on her thighs. Her flesh felt like tearing apart as she staggered along the quiet street that was covered with debris and blood stains. To push herself forward, she kept telling herself to join the others and fight alongside with them. Maybe more aid had come to him, so he would be fine. The saviour would definitely kill all the hideous creatures there and save him. They were strong and powerful people, unlike her. As the scene of him and other soldiers fighting from afar came to her view, a sense of relief came upon her. She was so sure that they would survive this battle.

Just when she was about to take another step ahead, the sky above her became dark. Her shadow beneath her feet was replaced by a large shadow of another human figure that stretched metres on the ground. Gulping, she titled her head upwards and stared at the horrifying grin of a 15-metre class titan.

 _Not again…_

Much to her surprise, the creature spoke in a female voice, "Sasha?"

She felt something warm gently pat against her left cheek.

"I'm going to replace the cold pad."

 _Cold pad? What the hell… Can titans actually talk coherently?_

"Geez… Somebody calls me… Whose number is this?"

The titan turned around and its face disappeared from Sasha's view. Sasha was confused. She had a feeling that she had known what would come next. She had known that she would fight this titan and die after that. But why it seemed that the events had changed slightly? The more she thought about it as she stared at the diminishing figure of the titan in puzzlement, the more her mind began to become more aware of the situation she was in. The scene of a familiar rundown town gradually warped into an unfamiliar dimly-lit cosy room. A constant ticking sound at the background became clearer but the titan's feminine voice could still be heard from outside the room.

"She's still asleep. Are you coming to pick her up later? I don't mind letting her stay here for a night though. Hey! I'm not a bad person, okay! Why are you being so mean to me again?"

Sasha found herself lying on something soft and comfy, and her body was covered with a thick blanket. She could not remember what had happened and how she had gotten to this unfamiliar place. She weakly pushed herself up and touched her forehead that had something warm stuck on it. She peeled it off and brought it down to her lap. It was a cold pad. Was she sick? She then glanced around the room. It looked almost like a small living room with two couches, including the one she was sitting on, a wooden cabinet, a small coffee table and a small television. On the coffee table, there were a mug of water, a bottle of syrup and three packets of pills.

"Talk to you later. I need to check on Sasha. Bye."

Then, a woman walked into the room and looked at Sasha in surprise. The woman rushed to Sasha's side and placed her hand on the girl's forehead.

"You are still very warm," she muttered as she took out another cold pad from a box which she was holding on since earlier. "Please rest a bit more, yeah?"

"Dr Hange," Sasha croaked. "Where am I?"

Hange removed the seal and stuck the cold pad on Sasha's forehead. She hastily removed the old cold pad from Sasha's palm and rolled it up.

"My workplace," Hange answered as she handed the mug to Sasha. "Please drink up."

Sasha complied and took a small sip of water. The warm water hit her dry throat with a cooling sensation and she started gulping down the water to soothe the prickly pain that came with her throat dryness. After finishing the last drop of water, she put her mug down on her lap again and turned to Hange.

"Are we… at the Titan Museum?"

"Yes, sweetie. You can say that I work and live here," Hange replied with a sheepish laugh. "We are on the second floor, by the way."

"What happened to me?" Sasha queried.

"You passed out at the back of the store. I heard from Levi that you vomited a few times before passing out. So, I took you to see the doctor and the doctor said that you have a fever. He gave some medicine." Hange pointed at the bottle of syrup and the packets of tablets. "Oh, Levi told me to let you rest at my place for the time being."

"Levi is at the store now, right?"

"Yes. He said that he will come over later after his work," Hange said with a small smile. "Wait, before I forget…" Hange leaned to her side and dragged a plastic bag that was next to the couch towards her. "Levi told me to prepare some instant porridge for you once you wake up."

"Levi did?" Sasha's eye brightened up at the sight of the plastic bag with their convenience store logo, and she quickly dug her hand into the plastic bag that seemed to be filled with many food items and randomly took out a styrofoam bowl wrapped in a thin plastic. "Oh gosh. I need to eat something right now, now that I know I had vomited. My poor stomach is empty. I think I can finish everything from this bag."

Sasha rubbed her tummy with a pout, earning a laugh from Hange.

"He said almost the same thing!" the older woman mused aloud before making a face that reminded Sasha of someone she knew. "Hey you, take these and make sure she eats them once she has awakened. She will probably be screaming in hunger once she knows that she had vomited just now. I bet she can still eat four bowls of porridge even if she's sick and vomiting. Her stomach is like a vacuum cleaner. You can't leave it empty for too long. If not, it will start making weird sounds. Here, take the four bowls of instant porridge with you, Four Eyes. There are also some other ingredients to add to the porridge. Make sure you pour hot water and let it sit for three minutes. Call me if there is anything wrong."

Sasha gaped at Hange as her face reddened. "Did he really say that?"

Hange nodded. Her amused face returned, grinning widely at Sasha.

Sasha's face dropped in embarrassment and she groaned, "Levi, why?! Oh my gosh! Why did he have to say that? My stomach is not a vacuum cleaner! And I don't scream in hunger!"

Hange chuckled, "Your manager cares about you, you know. And to be honest, he looked very, very worried. He temporarily closed the store and piggybacked you to my car. When I started driving away, he was still standing there."

"I-Is that so?" Sasha mumbled bashfully and then beamed at Hange. "Levi is nice, isn't he? Sometimes, he can be mean. He doesn't show his emotions often too. But I know that he actually cares about others."

Hange let out a weak laugh. She was not exactly sure if he was nice because he appeared to be mean to her since their first meeting earlier. Either he did not like her or they just had a certain bad chemistry. Strangely, when Hange first saw him in the store, she had this thought that she could have been good friends with him even though they had a bad start together. Taking the bowl from Sasha's hand, Hange stood up again with the plastic bag in an arm.

"By the way, I will prepare the porridge for you now. Please rest here," she said before making her way out of the room, leaving Sasha alone by herself again.

Sasha pushed her blanket away and shifted herself on the couch. Letting her feet touch the ground, she stood up and dug her hand into the side pocket of her jeans. She pulled out her handphone to check for the time and if there was any incoming message or call. It was already past 11pm and Levi would come to the museum after his work ended at 12 midnight. Despite feeling touched that he wanted to come over to probably check on her, Sasha did not want him to see her. It would be too bothersome for him to make his way here. Furthermore, it was already so late. Levi had been working almost the whole day. Although he would report to work slightly later on Saturdays, she could not allow herself to take away his precious rest. While she was contemplating whether to call him or not, Hange walked in again with two bowls of piping hot porridge.

"The porridge is surprising very little," Hange commented. "I think I can eat two bowls. Really."

"I haven't tried instant porridge before, but I have seen my customers buying it," Sasha said and took a bowl from Hange while Hange placed another bowl on the table. "Dr Hange, can I ask you a favour?"

"Sure, what is it?"

Scratching her cheek in an uncertain manner, the brunette requested, "Can you… um... give me a lift to my dorm after this? It is very close to my college. I'm sure my housemates will be very worried if I don't return. Uh… Tell Levi not to come over too."

"Hmm. Sure," Hange replied, perplexed. "Are you sure you will be okay moving around like that? I don't mind you staying overnight here."

"I will be fine. I think I will get better tomorrow too." Looking down, Sasha tugged her polo-tee with the convenience store logo on her left chest and sighed softly, "Man… I left my clothes and backpack in the store."

"He said he will bring them to you after work."

Sasha looked up at Hange and shook her head. "Tell him that I will pick them up tomorrow. And please tell him not to come here after work, is it okay?"

"He told me to inform you that you won't be working tomorrow, so you can rest," Hange continued to state.

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows.

"I shall see how I will feel tomorrow. But in any case, I don't want him to come here. He has work tomorrow too," she insisted firmly. "I don't want to bother him more than I should."

Hange nodded silently, crossing her arms as she stared at the young brunette sitting down on the couch and starting to dig in her food. A smile slowly made its way to Hange's face. She felt like she had heard this statement before. Or rather, this whole scene and their interaction seemed to have happened before. A worried man. A woman who was out cold in a man's arms. A man who wanted to see her after he had completed his work. A woman who did not want to bother him and pushed him away. It was a feeling of déjà vu.

"By any chance, Sasha…" Hange began speaking again, earning a curious glance from the girl on the couch.

For a moment, Hange was at a loss for words. She quickly dismissed her puzzling thoughts and made a fanning movement with her hand to dismiss what she had just said.

"Nothing. I forgot what I wanted to say to you," Hange quickly said. "Anyway, please eat up before the porridge cools down. After that, I will give you a ride back to your dorm."

Sasha gave her a smile and sang, "Okay, Dr Hange! Thanks for the food!"

"No problem…" Hange muttered. _The person you should thank is him, your manager._

-:-:-:-

His mind was in a mess. Earlier, Hange had called him, informing him not to come over to her workplace because Sasha wanted to head back to her dormitory to rest. Furthermore, she still had fever. He wanted to see how she was doing first before going home with a peace of mind. Initially, he had thought that by saying that he would bring her belongings over could give him a reason to drop by Hange's place to see her. He was so bothered and distracted by the mental image of Sasha coughing painfully in front of the toilet bowl, throwing up at least four times, and fainting thereafter. She was so pale and he even noticed that her left inner elbow had a large reddish-purple bruise which he had no idea how she had gotten that. He mentally groaned. Gosh, he was so worried for that ever-hungry brat.

A customer placed her items on the counter and spoke to him in a monotone, "How much?"

Her voice pulled his attention back to his work again. Levi shifted the small pack of sanitary pads and two packets of red bean bread closer to the register and hovered the barcode scanner over the barcode at the side of each product. The machine beeped thrice and the total cost of the products was displayed on the extended portion of the cash register.

"Five dollars and eighty cents," he said, packing the items into a plastic bag.

However, the customer did not respond. Levi stole a glance at the customer from the corner of his eyes and almost immediately, his breath hitched. The black-haired customer was also staring back at him with a pair of widened eyes. He turned his head slightly towards her to have a better look at her face, and then he frowned hard. Breaking away from his intense gaze, the customer cleared her throat and took out a five-dollar note and a one-dollar coin from her purse.

"May I have a receipt, please?" she asked in a low voice as she handed him the money.

He took the money and handed her a twenty-cent coin with a printed receipt from the cash register. The customer hastily snatched her coin and the receipt from his hand, grabbed the plastic bag and hurriedly left the store. Outside the store was a dark brown haired male waiting for her while looking at the opposite stores absentmindedly. When she came to his side, the male took the plastic bag from her hand and the both of them started walking away side-by-side. Levi had never seen them before. Never in this lifetime. But finally, he had seen them.

An unsettling feeling mounted within his chest.

* * *

 **Hi again! Thank you for reading this chapter! I would like to thank _Lupita Amador_ and _Lady Serai_ for reviewing the previous chapter, and the readers who followed and favourited this fanfiction. You guys made my day as always! :)**

 _"The one who left my good friend to die was me._  
 _No matter how many times I say sorry to her,_  
 _those words would never reach her..._  
 _because she no longer knows who I am_  
 _and who we once were._  
 _But the one who killed him_ _was her, my good friend."_

 **See you again in the next chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

It was another Sunday. Sasha was still having a slight fever and could not go out with her friends to buy birthday gifts, decorations, and food. Her fever had dropped since Saturday afternoon and had been oscillating between 38.2°C to 38.9°C. Levi had told her not to come to work and had Hannah to cover for her Saturday afternoon and night shifts. As for her clothes and backpack, Connie had volunteered to help her to take them from the store on that Saturday night. It was Connie's first time meeting Levi too. Not surprisingly, when Connie had paid Sasha a visit with her belongings, he started complaining about how cold Levi was to him and how Sasha could tolerate him. As usual, Sasha would start to defend her store manager by saying that he was actually a nice and caring behind that cold facade. Connie trusted her words and stopped ranting. He was afraid that Sasha was bullied, but it seemed like she was on good terms with that 'cold' superior. So, he had decided to push the matter aside and start changing to another topic to talk about.

On the other hand, Krista spent most of the time trying to nurse Sasha. She prepared porridge for the sick girl and even ensured that she took her medicine at certain times of the day. Sometimes, when Sasha was asleep, Krista would help her to wipe off her perspiration on her arms and neck while changing the cold pads for her. Ymir would help Krista out a little, claiming herself to be terrible at nursing people. She remarked that the way Sasha had been vigorously training herself for the upcoming competition was obviously the cause of her sickness. Her large bruise on her inner elbow did not go unnoticed by her housemates when they nursed Sasha. Ymir had asked Sasha about it once she had woken up from her slumber, but Sasha quickly dismissed it by saying she had accidentally hurt herself with something. She did not elaborate further even though Ymir had tried prompting her. The conversation ended with Krista telling Ymir to stop asking Sasha and let her rest.

Being alone in the dormitory the whole day was something Sasha wasn't used to. Krista and Ymir would usually be staying in to do their assignments or study. Sometimes, the three of them would hang out together for lunch and shop for their necessities after that. Staying with one another for almost a year had bonded the three girls, making them feel like a family. Unfortunately, they were close to a certain extent. Sasha had always wondered why the two of them had never returned home, especially during the holidays. Not saying that Sasha had ever returned home since she had entered college. Sasha had her own personal reason which she did not really share with them. Only Connie knew about it. Since she was busy training and working part-time, she could only call home at night once in a blue moon and hear her father's tired voice. Hence, knowing that Ymir and Krista had their own reasons which they probably wouldn't want to share, she did not dare to ask about their private lives.

While she was lying on the couch sideways, she turned on the television and watched whatever programme that was first featured. It was a cartoon programme for children, featuring a puppet teaching some basic words of the day. Sasha did not bother to change the programme and just watched the show in boredom. As she watched on, her eyelids became heavy and she eventually dozed off in front of the television. She felt so sleepy, not only because the programme was boring, but also because she was under the influence of the drowsy medication. Just then, her handphone starting buzzing in her hand. She woke up groggily with her eyes still closed and picked up the call without finding out who the caller was.

"Hello," she spoke tiredly, dragging the word longer than necessary.

 _"Sasha?"_ a familiar voice sounded through the phone.

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows and turned to lie on her back. She half-opened her eyes and brought the handphone in front of her face. The letters on the screen were slowly processed in her mind before she finally realised who the caller was. Her eyes widened and she immediately sprung up to a sitting position, looking very surprised.

 _Papa Bear 3_

"Papa!" she exclaimed as she brought the handphone to her ear again.

" _How's my lil' girl feelin'?"_

"Papa, I'm fine! Feeling really good today!" Sasha replied, trying her best to sound energetic as possible. "How about you?"

" _I'm good. Connie called me, saying that you've fallen sick on Friday night. I was very worried. I wanted to call you but I thought I should call later. My girl needs lots of rest, ya?"_

"Oh, Connie has told you. I'm actually feeling better now because my friends took care of me very well," Sasha assured with a small laugh. "I shall introduce them to you one day. Krista and Ymir. They are fantastic people!"

" _I'm glad that you've made good friends, Sasha. But, my girl, I'm wonderin'… Just wondering."_

"What is it?"

" _When will you come back home? Connie has returned a few days ago. I met him in the supermarket with Mrs Springers. He talks a lot about you. But… I want to see you, Sasha."_

 _I know._ Sasha's shoulders dropped as she kept her silence.

" _Besides, why didn't you ask me for your monthly allowances? I tried sending you some money but your bank account wasn't valid. I wonder what happened."_

"Papa, you know the last time I went to-"

" _Don't try to avoid this question again, Sasha. Don't start talking about food. I know your tricks."_

Sasha groaned.

" _I know you've been workin' part time but I believe your salary isn't enough to pay for everything. Furthermore, knowing you, you would've spend everything on your meals instead. How are you going to pay for your accommodation and other living expenses? I'm just curious, Sasha. I want to provide for you as much as I can."_

"Isn't paying for my tuition fees enough?" Sasha murmured. "I told you before. I don't want your money."

" _What's wrong with spendin' my money on my child? Sasha, you know that I-"_

"Papa, I will come home next month. I am very busy right now. When I am done with everything, I am going to take time off from work to see you, okay?" Sasha said in a firm voice. "Let's visit Mama when I return home."

Sasha paused and waited for her father's reply. She could hear him sighing heavily, not saying anything. Then, she went on.

"Don't tire yourself out. And please don't worry about me. I have been earning and saving enough. I have survived one year away from home, Papa. You should be proud of your lil' country bumpkin!"

He sighed again. " _Alright, Sasha. Give me a call when you're comin'. Don't work too hard."_

Sasha laughed and joked, "As if that will stop me from working hard!"

She finally could hear a chuckle on the other side of the line. " _Get well soon. Bye, Sasha."_

"Goodbye. I love you, Papa."

Then, the line was cut off. Sasha put down her handphone on the couch next to her and lie on her back again. She closed her eyes and thought about those times when she was still a little girl carrying a large toolbox and following her father to the dock to repair ships and their mechanics. When her father needed something or had left his tool elsewhere, she would run very fast to get it for him so that he would complete his work fast and not get into trouble with his mean employers. She wasn't called 'one of the faster runners' in her school for nothing. Those were fun times. She could not ask her father for more because she understood that he was also struggling to support his family with such meagre income. If she had done better in her high school graduation examination, she could have applied for a scholarship and not rely on her father to pay for her college tuition fees. She wanted to be independent. She wanted to give her father a better life. As she was reminiscing her past with a smile, she had totally ignored, or rather, forgotten about the kiddy music playing on the television and slowly drifted off to her dreamland again.

-:-:-:-

The following day, Sasha felt rejuvenated. Her temperature had decreased further and she had no more fever. It had been quite stable throughout the morning and noon time. She had slept in for almost the whole weekend. Sasha could honestly say that this was the best feeling ever because it was a very rare chance to be able to sleep for many hours with no worries of being late for work or class, and homework. Neither did she have to worry about her alarm clock dragging her out of her sweet dreams because she had already turned it off. Even after Krista and Ymir had returned from shopping with the boys, they continued to ensure that Sasha was well-rested and sometimes, they would wake Sasha up and inform her to take her temperature to see if her fever had dropped. No doubt Sasha was well-taken care of by her friends!

After staying in her room for almost two days straight, Sasha felt the need to leave the house and breath in some fresh air. She had enough of porridge. Don't get her wrong, she loved porridge but her mouth was itching for other food. She wanted to drop by that particular cafe which had recently included some new flavoured shortcakes to their menu. She had always wanted to visit it since the week before. This time, she definitely had to visit that cafe! However, she would have to go alone. Ymir and Krista had some school activities to attend to while Connie had his football training. Initially, Sasha wanted to drop by the indoor stadium to practice archery. Unfortunately, the stadium was booked by the basketball club and the tennis club. Even the field was fully booked the whole day by the football club. Everyone was working very hard for the upcoming competition. To Sasha, taking a day break seemed like a good idea so that she could engage in other things which she realised that she had been missing out on during the past week. Maybe Ymir was right. Even though training was important, she should not have pushed herself too hard. She could not believe that she had been standing more than eight hours for four days straight. It was no wonder that her feet felt so sore. After a good two-day rest in bed, Sasha's feet felt so much better!

When the clock hand hit 12 noon, Sasha left the dormitory, wearing a light pink floral blouse and a black knee-length skirt. She headed to the cafe and ordered a hot latte and seven slices of different flavoured shortcakes to taste. After finishing her latte, she ordered a glass of cold cocoa drink with a thin layer of cocoa powder at the top, and continued savouring her shortcakes as she drank. As always, this cafe did not disappoint Sasha with their delicious shortcakes and beverages. When Sasha was done with eating, she left the cafe, feeling extremely contented and satisfied. Seeing that she still had lots of time to spare in the warm afternoon, she wanted to head down a shopping centre to do some window-shopping and perhaps buy some snacks at some snack shops. At the meantime, she could shop for Eren's birthday gift. His party would be held this coming weekend, and she was pretty excited about it even though it was going to be held in her dormitory. She had no idea how Krista had managed to convince the Dorm Master because obviously, it was against the rule to invite boys over to the girl's dorm section and vice versa. However, it was also possible that Krista had hidden certain information about the party from the Dorm Master. That would mean that all three of them would get into a serious trouble if she found out the truth.

Sasha shuddered. No, they had to be careful. Maybe they should tell the boys to keep their volume down during the party so that it would not raise any suspicion. She would tell them that later when she returned back to the dormitory after her shopping.

She took a bus down to the nearest shopping centre where she, Krista and Ymir frequently shopped at to buy their goods and basic necessities. Krista would often buy her clothes from some stores in that shopping centre while Sasha would buy her snacks there. Upon arriving at the entrance of the shopping centre, Sasha made a beeline towards her favourite bakery that sold her favourite freshly-baked cookies and yam bread. From afar, she could already smell the strong aroma of egg and butter, making her mouth water again.

As soon as she entered the bakery, she was greeted by a short plump woman at the counter. The middle-aged woman hurried towards Sasha and held her hands in an affectionate manner.

"My, my! I haven't seen Sasha for almost three weeks! I'm starting to wonder if you are very busy," the woman said gleefully.

Sasha smiled. "Oh yes, I am very busy lately. But I miss your cookies and bread!"

The woman led Sasha to the assortments of cookies and bread on the display shelf and asked her, "What would you like to have today?"

Without having to look through the assortments, Sasha told the woman that she wanted three cookies from each assortment and three yam bread so that she could share them with her housemates. The woman gladly prepared them for her and after Sasha had paid for the cookies and bread, Sasha left the bakery and started shopping for a birthday gift. She entered a sports shop, thinking that she should get some sporty stuff for Eren. He would probably look good wearing a wristband or a cap. After seeing a large array of wristbands and caps in the store, she did not know what to choose and decided to leave the shop to see if there were other cooler things from other shops. Next to that shop was a shop that sold gaming-related materials. It was also one of the shops Sasha would occasionally visit. To date, she had only bought two video-games from this shop. Because a gaming cartridge could be very costly, Sasha would not spend so much on her games. She did not mind replaying the games over and over again since she was the type of person who would not get bored with a game easily.

Sasha entered the gaming shop and walked around to see if there were new games on the shelf. She remembered that one of the games she had bought had a second season and was recently released in multiple stores. She really wanted to buy that! But first, she had to find out the cost. If it was beyond her budget (for leisure activities), she had to wait till next time when she had more money to spare and buy it. Just then, she caught sight of a newly released game on a shelf. It was called ' _Attack on Titan_ '. The game cover depicted an ugly two horned giant with a large jaw attacked by a male soldier holding two swords from above.

The title sounded familiar to her. She had heard it before a few weeks ago. She closed her eyes and thought hard. Did someone mention this game to her? Was it Connie? But Connie was not the type who would be very updated in newly-released games even though he used to play video-games with her when they were little. She took the game package from the shelf and turned to the back cover to read the blurb.

 _Oh no!  
_ _Man-eating titans are invading your homeland! Can you stop the titans from invading the Island of Finalisia?  
_ _Join the other soldiers in their battles against the titans.  
_ _Earn experience points in exchange for new and more powerful weapons.  
_ _So, what are you waiting for? Kill all the evil titans now!_

 _I will kill all of the titans! All of them!_

A voice rang in her head. Sasha furrowed her eyebrows as she flipped the cover back to front. Having no recollection of where she had heard this statement before, Sasha was so confused as to how it could sound very familiar to her. But it felt so foreign at the same time.

"Eren…" a soft sigh unconsciously escaped her lips.

 _Eren?_

Sasha quickly placed the game package back on the shelf and looked around her. Other patrons were still browsing through the shelves, totally ignoring her flustered behaviour. A blush crept up her cheeks upon the realisation that she had just sighed his name without thinking. She bought her two slightly cold hands to her cheeks and gently patted them, trying to stop her cheeks from heating up too much. Just then, she recalled a conversation that she had overheard between Eren and Armin two weeks ago. Eren had mentioned that he wanted to buy a video game about killing titans but he wanted to wait for the price to decrease first before buying it. Did he refer to this ' _Attack on Titan_ ' game? Since it was newly released, it was very costly. He seemed so excited when he had talked about the game to Armin. He kept chatting away about how fun and cool the game would be before their lecture had officially started. Sasha took the game package out of the shelf again and looked at it with a thoughtful frown. Should she buy it as a gift? She would definitely over exceed her budget for this month. But she wanted to see Eren's happy face upon receiving this gift.

Suddenly, she felt something pat her bottom and brushed up against her skirt, alarming her greatly. She quickly turned around and saw no one behind her… No, in fact, there was someone tiny behind her. She glanced downwards and gave the tiny person a hard stare. The young child who looked between two to three years old stared up at her with a blank look.

"Mama?" The child pouted and let go of her skirt. "Not mama."

Realising that it was an innocent child who had just mistaken her for his mother, Sasha chuckled in relief and bent over to meet the child at his eye level.

"Yeah, I'm not your mama," Sasha said as she patted the child's head. "Where is your mother, kid?"

The child looked around and started running away from Sasha. He ran towards another lady wearing a black skirt and a pink shirt, and started tugging the hem of her skirt. The lady looked down and a smile emerged on her face. She picked the child up and the child started calling her 'mama' a few times ecstatically as he wrapped his arms around her neck. The child's smile and giggles made Sasha feel warm inside her. Seeing people smile made her very happy. And out of all people, she wanted to see _him_ smile the most on his birthday. Finally, she had made her decision.

"Okay, I will buy this," Sasha told herself as she made her way to the counter with the game package. "I need to cut down on cakes and cookies next month. No more shortcakes and latte."

She could definitely survive some reduction of her food intake. She would just have to spend on cheaper meals, that was all. Besides, she would be visiting her hometown next month. The food there would be a lot cheaper too. After buying the game package, she left the store and continued her shopping at another sports shop that sold slightly different things from the shop that she had visited earlier. She did not intend to buy any more things since she had spent a lot on that video game and the cookies. Still, she wanted to take a look at some equipment relating to her sport before heading home.

At the archery section, she just browsed through the items that were displayed against the wall. The items were expensive, not surprisingly though. That was why Sasha had loaned a bow and a few arrows from her school instead of getting her own bow and arrows. It was recommended by her seniors to buy a good set of personal bow since she was one of the better archers in the club. It was a good investment, they had advised her. But being careful with her budget most of the time, Sasha did not heed their advice. Anyway, the school set of bow and arrows was already good enough for her in her opinion. The only things she had bought for herself were the protective gears that were worn on her arm, hands and chest.

Speaking of her armguard, the rubber cord that was attached to it had snapped during her training on Friday. She thought that she would be fine without it so she continued with her training. She was not used to shooting without her armguard and even a 'good' player, which others had called her, could still get hurt by the bowstring without an arm protector. The large purple bruise on her upper forearm was the proof. It hurt a lot. The first hit had obviously stung. But the second, third, and fourth hits had temporarily paralysed her whole arm as a sharp pain travelled through the nerves from the injured area to the tips of her fingers each time she was hit, causing to miss her desired target three times in a row. After that, she had gone to borrow an armguard from her team captain for the rest of the day and returned him at the end of the training. She wanted to get a replacement soon, at least a few days before the competition. Anyway, she would be getting her salary by the end of March. Then, she could use it to buy a new armguard from this sports shop.

While heading towards the display shelf where all the protective gears were kept, she saw a familiar person picking up a pair of brown shooting gloves from the shelf and flipping the gloves over a few times as if she was inspecting it. Feeling curious and a little excited to see her friend in the same shop as her by coincidence, Sasha approached her while quickly inserting the plastic bag which contained the game package into the other plastic bag that contained the bread and cookies.

"Mikasa!" she called out and tapped the girl from behind, startling the latter.

Mikasa turned around and looked at Sasha, still holding onto that pair of shooting gloves. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Sasha?" Mikasa put the gloves back on the shelf. "What are you doing here?"

"Shopping!" Sasha replied, lifting up her plastic bag to show Mikasa. "What about you?"

Mikasa glanced to her left for a moment before looking at the brunette again, and then she answered with a small smile, "Just walking around."

"Oh, I see."

"I heard that you have fallen ill…" Mikasa paused for a moment as she noticed the bakery logo on the plastic bag in Sasha's hand. "I'm relieved to see that you are well now."

"Krista and Ymir are like my mummies. They took very good care of me for the past few days. So, that's why I bought lots of cookies for them," Sasha said with a giggle.

"I see," Mikasa responded and pulled up her red scarf to her chin level while her eyes travelled to Sasha's left hand which was carrying that plastic bag. "That bruise…"

Almost immediately after hearing the word 'bruise', Sasha instinctively pressed her inner elbow against the side of her body to hide it from Mikasa's view. That was the most stupid reaction, Sasha realised after a second. There was no use hiding it since Mikasa had already seen it. And why in the world she had to react like she was being sneaky about it? She might give the wrong idea to Mikasa. Sasha relaxed her arm and showed the bruise to Mikasa. She gently rubbed her bruise in circles with an awkward laugh.

"This bruise is actually not as serious as it looks. I bumped into something. Didn't know it will be so big. But not pain at all." Sasha poked it and mentally winced in pain and regret, but her exterior still managed to maintain a sheepish grin. "See? No biggie!"

Mikasa rose an eyebrow at her, definitely not convinced by Sasha's act. Her eyes darted to the left again before looking back at Sasha.

"Apply some ointment. It does look like it hurt a lot," Mikasa commented as she reached out to Sasha's left shoulder and gave her a light pat. "I have to go now. See you again next time."

"Ah, okay… See you," Sasha said and waved to her friend who was already making her way towards the direction where she had been glancing at since earlier.

The girl was walking so fast, more like brisk-walking, towards the entrance of the shop where someone with a plastic bag in his hand was waiting for her. She hastily grabbed his wrist and started dragging the person away, much to the person's annoyance as he began protesting and asking why she was pulling him. Sasha tilted her head to have a better look at the boy next to Mikasa. Her eye widened upon realising who he was from his back view.

 _Eren?_

Did he buy something from this shop? He didn't notice her, right? Many questions began running through her head. Sasha then narrowed her eyes at the diminishing figures of the Jaeger siblings, feeling a little puzzled by Mikasa's behaviour. Were they in a rush to leave? It seemed like it. If not, why would she be pulling Eren to match up with her quick pace of walking? Sasha shrugged and continued with her browsing, not wanting to think about it anymore since it had nothing to do with her, or so she thought. After taking note of the armguards' prices, Sasha left the shop and headed back to her dormitory to take a rest before going to work at night.

-:-:-:-

Upon arriving at her workplace, a sense of dread weighed Sasha's usual enthusiasm down. She felt so awkward and embarrassed to face Levi. He had seen her throw up and faint – definitely not a sight she had wanted anyone to see. Furthermore, he was a very clean person. Imagine that disgusted face he would make when he had to clean up the toilet after she had vomited. She could remember him catching her fall and holding her close to him. However, she could not remember what had come next. Hange had told her that he had piggybacked her from the store to her car, and he even called Hange to check on her condition that night. On Saturday, he had called Sasha in the late morning, asking her how she was feeling and informed her that Hannah would be replacing her for the afternoon and night shifts.

Although he sounded like his normal self, Sasha knew that he must have been very worried about her. After thinking about it for quite some time, she realised that it was a little strange that he was willing to come down to Hange's workplace to check on her after his work. Normally, a superior would not even bother to do it, especially it was already past midnight by the time his work had ended. Not like he was her close friend either. Usually, it would be just a call to ask if she was all right and perhaps talk about sending in her medical certificate to take a day or two off from work to recover her health. Or maybe Sasha was thinking a little too much into it. Levi could have done the same thing and show his concern, in his unique subtle way, to the other workers.

Sasha stepped into the store and greeted Hannah and Franz who were arranging the the items on the shelves. The two asked her how she was feeling, to which Sasha replied that she was. She headed to the back of the store and pushed open the door of the storeroom. There was a bright light at the right corner of the dimly-lit room where a small desk was. Levi frequently used that desk as a place to keep the store's records of stocks, workers' timestamp, and other administrative stuffs. Seeing the light, Sasha knew that Levi was at the desk, probably doing his administrative work. So, she made her way to the corner to greet her superior and record her reporting time on her timestamp card as usual. True enough, he was sitting on a chair behind that desk, flipping through the papers in a large file.

Sasha ran her fingers through her fringe and adjusted it straight to her right side. The awkwardness amplified with her sudden consciousness of her presence in the same room as him. She walked closer to the desk and cleared her throat.

"Good evening, Levi."

She tried to sound as natural as possible, but her tone came out sounding so serious and formal like a military greeting instead. She felt herself growing flustered by that. She saw the older man stop flipping through the documents and glanced up at her with an unreadable expression.

"Braus," he greeted her back while she noticed his eyes softened as he spoke. "You're back."

Sasha plastered a smile on her face. "Yup, back and feeling better. Anyway, sorry for being a burden that night. I… I made a mess in the toilet and you have to clean it up. Really sorry about that."

"Ah, about that…" Levi looked away with a small frown. "I had a hard time cleaning." Levi looked back at her and lightly pulled up the right side of his collar. "My shirt got dirty. Got a stain here after you wiped those stuffs on your face against my shirt."

Sasha felt disgusted with herself upon hearing that. Did she really wipe her chyme on him when she fainted? That was extremely gross! Levi must be really mad.

Immediately, Sasha lowered her head and apologised to him, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I will be more careful next time. I don't mind washing the toilet for the next month to make up for it. I will do anything as long as you are happy."

She held her head low apologetically and waited for him to say something. But after a good few seconds later, she heard a snort of laughter coming from the man in front of her. Surprised, she slowly glanced up at him. She saw his shoulders tremble slightly and his head was lowered. The crinkled skin around his eyes was evident as his upper cheek muscles swelled with pressure. His lips were tightly pursed while the corners of his lips were slightly curled upwards, no doubt showing how hard he was trying his very best to hold back a laugh. Sasha was so astonished to see him looking like this that she went speechless. It was like seeing another person in front of her. Another soft snort escaped his lips and he immediately lowered his head further with his hand covering his mouth, hiding his amused face from her view. It took Sasha awhile to collect herself and another sense of dread came down upon her.

Did Levi just laugh at her? What was so funny? Could Levi actually laugh? Oh yes, he could. He should smile and laugh more often like this. Looking down at her feet again, Sasha blushed deep red at his sudden change of demeanor. It was her first time seeing his face tense up and crinkle in silent laughter. Moreover, it felt weird seeing a different side of him.

"Sorry, Braus," she heard him say in a rather shaky voice. "It was a lie. I was joking."

Sasha's head sprung upwards and she stared wide-eyed at Levi. Levi joked? Did he just confess that he was joking with her? Her ears must be playing tricks on her. The man inhaled deeply and slowly let his breath out, calming himself down. Then, he cleared his throat, held his hands behind his back, and stared back at her expressionlessly.

"By the way, what matters is that you are okay. Don't feel sorry." He got up, walked around the desk and stood in front of her as his eyes fixated on her upper forearm that was covered by the long sleeve of her cardigan. "How's your injury?"

"What injury?"

"The one on your inner elbow. The one you got from playing the bow and arrow, I think."

"Ah, that…" Sasha paused for a moment, suddenly feeling very confused.

She had never told him that she played archery and what club she had joined in school. All she had ever told him that she had school activities whenever she wanted to apply leaves and never really explained what she had done in those activities in details. So, how did he know that she played the 'bow and arrow'? Even those who were close to her and knew that she practiced archery did not even realise that the bruise was caused by the 'bow and arrow'.

Putting her left arm behind her back, Sasha looked at him with a small suspicious frown and cautiously asked, "How did you know that I was hurt… with the bow?"

At that question, she could see a line appeared between his brows, looking as if he had realised something was amiss in his last statement to her.

* * *

 **Hello! Thank you for reading up to this chapter. Chapter 10 will be updated near the end of this year. After Christmas, probably. I managed to write four more chapters in advance during my school break. So, yay! They can last me another four more months of updates :)**

 **Preview of Chapter 10:**

"Could it be that you are upset that Armin has chosen you over that girl on your birthday?"

"Huh? No way!" Eren shouted, giving Zeke a weird look too. "Why would I be upset over this? His grandpa is ill, remember? Maybe he needed some help and called Sasha over."

"Then, why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset, okay?" Eren said in a taut voice before turning his gaze back to the television screen, preparing himself for the quest to start. "Let's not talk about this..."

 **Whoops! Zeke appears!**

 **See you in the next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **10**

 _"I used to know someone who was proficient in using the bow and arrow. She was a hunter. Sometimes, she would receive injuries on her forearm, similar to yours. So, I'm just guessing that you use the bow and arrow too."_

Sasha stared at the ceiling as she lay on the bed, recalling the conversation she had earlier with Levi during work. She was intrigued by the fact that Levi knew a hunter. As hunting and poaching were considered illegal activities since more than hundred years ago due to the environmental protection law, it was impossible for Levi to know someone who was a hunter locally. Perhaps that person was someone from overseas. It was interesting to know that Levi knew someone like that.

She wondered what kind of hunter the person was. Did she hunt for fun? Did she hunt for food? Did she hunt for a living? Or for commercial purpose? Furthermore, Levi had said that the person was proficient in using the bow and arrow. Certainly, that person was extremely good at archery! Sasha beamed excitedly to herself. She hoped that she could meet that hunter one day so she could learn lots of field techniques from her. Maybe she could earn lots of money first, then go overseas, and meet that person. Hunting wasn't easy as compared to what she was learning from her archery training. Her target was still, unlike animals which would flee from her arrow. Oh boy, Sasha's fingers were tingling with excitement upon thinking of learning a new skill.

Sasha turned to lay on her side and closed her eyes. As she was tired after a whole day of shopping and work, she fell asleep within a few minutes. Lately, she had been having weird dreams. She had dreamt of herself as a soldier who was going to die. She had dreamt of man-eating giants. She had dreamt of many regrets before dying. This time, she had a different dream. She dreamt that she was riding a young horse with her hunting gear, chasing after a huge wild boar in a forest. Her stomach was growling at the thought of turning it into a communal meal although she would rather have the meat all to herself.

When she yanked back the reins, the horse slammed to a stop. Dirt and mud showered the road as her horse slid, its front legs peddling in mid-air madly. She threw her weight forward to balance herself on the horse while unconsciously twisting the reins around her wrists to secure herself. As soon as the horse stopped moving, she let go of the reins, took out an arrow from the pouch on her back, and attached the nock against the bowstring. She had to be quick with her actions as the frightened animal was running away and she might lose it within the next few seconds. She quickly drew the bowstring as she brought the bow up and aimed at the animal's back. She narrowed her eyes at the diminishing figure and let go of the bowstring. The arrow flew at high speed and pierced into the boar's thigh. The boar let out a loud growl of distress as it continued to flee.

Sasha grabbed the reins again and pulled it hard, urging the horse to start the chase. The young horse galloped fast, catching up with the wild boar again. Using her legs to secure herself against the horse's back, Sasha let go of the reins once more and took out another arrow. She aimed the attached arrow at the boar's back again, hoping to immobilise it with her second shot. However, before she could let go of the bowstring, the wild boar made a turn to its right and the tall grass and bushes covered it, making it more difficult for her to aim at its body.

Without further ado, she shifted her aiming position and pointed the arrow at a grassy spot slightly ahead of the boar. Using her estimation based on the running speed of the boar and her horse, she made a quick judgement that she had to shoot in the next two seconds to at least hit the body. Upon seeing it approaching her targeted spot, she let go of the bowstring and the arrow flew towards the boar. Just then, another arrow appeared from nowhere and both arrows struck the boar. Again, the boar let out a grunt and kept running a distance before it collapsed on the grass.

Feeling a tinge of success despite the extra help that she had gotten, she tugged her horse's reins on its right side to cue the horse to make a small right turn towards that fallen boar. As her horse galloped towards the fallen boar, she heard another galloping sound behind her. She stopped right in front of her prey and got down from her horse. The boar was still breathing as it lay on the grass unconscious and paralysed by the 'extra' arrow that had pierced into its head. The second arrow which she had shot was stuck near the upper side of the body. She removed the round-up rope from her horse and straightened it, letting the rest of its length to fall on the ground. Finally, the person who had shot the 'extra' arrow arrived next to her on his horse. He got down from his horse too and squatted next to boar to examine its body.

He took the rope from Sasha's hand and began tying the limbs tightly together. As he did so, he spoke to the young hunter, "You still have so much to learn, Sasha. But I must say, well done on your first try."

Sasha pouted unhappily and whined, "If only you hadn't interfered, I would have caught it by myself!"

The man frowned at her and chided, "The animal would have escaped by then, Sasha. Try to aim at spots that can paralyse the animal. Bigger animals are more difficult to catch than smaller animals."

"I thought it was the other way round. Geez. I would prefer hunting smaller animals to hunting larger animals then. It only takes one arrow to kill the little ones."

"You are already ten. You can't be only hunting rabbits and birds all the time, Sasha. Next time, I'm going to make you hunt a deer."

Sasha's eyes instantly brightened up in delight and she started squealing excitedly, "A deer! Sounds interesting! Teach me, Papa!"

The man stood up, lifting up the heavy wild boar and held it in front of her. The way he had carried it up looked as if it was not as heavy as she had thought it would be judging by the size of it. With an interested grin, she extended her arms and held the rope, but her arms immediately dropped when her father let go of the boar. Sasha squatted and tried to lift the boar by herself, however, her small body did not have enough strength to lift this animal up. It was extremely heavy! How did her father even lift this thing up?!

Her father took the rope from her hands and easily lifted it up again. He slung the boar's body over his shoulder and climbed up his horse. Sasha stared at him in awe at how easily he could get on his horse like the boar was weightless on his body. But of course, her father had big muscles from many years of hunting. She wanted to be like her father who was the best hunter in the village.

Her father looked down at her and said firmly, "You're going to learn hunting a deer yourself."

"But how can I learn when I have never watched you hunt a deer before?" she retorted with a small angry pout.

"When did you first learn to shoot an arrow at your neighbour's chicken? Nobody has ever hunted a chicken here."

She found herself becoming flustered by his statement. For some reason, she could not remember the incident but she was sure it took place. Her memory of that incident seemed too vague at this moment. Since her father had mentioned it, it really had taken place.

"Sasha, let's go back now before Mama gets home from her gathers. Mama will scold me if she knows that you have ridden a horse. You know she doesn't allow you to ride a horse till you reach twelve."

She knew about it. Because she was still young, her mother refused to let her engage in hunting activities with the other villagers and her father. She could only sit outside her house and watch them hunt from afar. However, when her mother was away, her father would secretly call his daughter to join him and taught her how to use the bow and arrow, as well as riding a horse.

She was a fast learner when it came to these 'manly' activities as compared to the 'womanly' things which her mother had tried to teach her, such as sewing and hand-washing the laundry. Her fast progress as a young hunter delighted her father so much that his expectations for her hunting skills increased since then. With just a few months of training and having little experience of hunting while riding a horse, assigning her to catch a wild boar for a communal meal was like jumping the gun. Sasha did not mind the challenge because she thought that it was fun to do something which her father had always done for his village.

Sasha held onto her horse's reins and looked at her father quizzically. "But why does Papa allow me to ride a horse? I haven't reached twelve yet."

Her father gave her a warm smile which was filled with pride. Before that, she could not understand the meaning behind that smile. But at this moment, it seemed like she had understood it. Living with her father for more than nineteen years, she had seen too many of this similar smile when he talked about her athletic abilities to his employers and also talked about how it was such a waste that he did not have enough money to give her a proper platform where she could tap into her strengths with restraint. In fact, Sasha did not mind if she did not have that platform which her father had wished for. As long as she enjoyed what she was doing and if what she was doing made her father happy, she would be satisfied.

"Come here, Sasha." Her father waved his hand at her, signalling her to come closer to his horse. When she did so, he lowered his body a little, let his large hand rest on her small head and tousled her brown hair with a soft chuckle. "Why, you asked? That's because you're Papa's lil gal."

She looked up at him with a small blush and a toothy grin. He did not exactly answer her question, but she knew that her father was proud of her and held high expectations for his only child. Not many children at the age of ten in her village could ride a horse, not to mention horseback hunting yet. Knowing these expectations, she was determined not to let her father down again.

With arms akimbo, Sasha said confidently to her father, "I shall catch a deer by this week. Watch me, Papa. Sasha is going to bring home a deer!"

"That's da spirit! I will look forward to it!"

"Don't tell Mama!"

"No worries. I wouldn't want to be whooped too!"

Both father and daughter laughed heartily at their little secret. Just as she was about to get on her horse again, she started feeling a little strange. She turned to her father who getting ready to urge his horse to move. He pulled the reins with one hand while another hand was holding onto the boar on his shoulder, then the horse started galloping away.

Seeing his figure gradually diminished, Sasha began reasoning to herself. She was nineteen years old, not eleven. Her mother had long passed away when she was a baby so she had never seen how she looked like in real life, except in her father's and her wedding photos. Her mother was very pretty in her early twenties. Her father wasn't a hunter too. His big muscles were not built from his various hunting activities. Rather, he got his muscles from carrying large wooden planks and fixing ships. The body she was in was not hers, yet she felt like she was this Sasha, the young talented hunter.

"Alexandra, what are you doing here in the middle of the forest?"

 _Alexandra?_

She turned to the source and saw a man in his hunting gear as well. Her eyes widened at the sight of him and immediately get on her horse.

"You could ride a horse, Alexandra? Did you get lost?" the man asked her with a smile.

She hated his smile a lot for no particular reason. And who the hell was Alexandra? Who was he?

"Come here. Let uncle bring you back, okay? Your mama is waiting for you."

Without saying a word, Sasha looked away from him and yanked the reins hard, causing the young horse to neigh loudly and started galloping in a haphazard manner. She was losing balance, but she needed to get out of this forest fast. Each time her horse wanted to make a turn without her consent, she would pull the sides of the reins to make it focus on its front. She needed to catch up with her 'father' and leave this dream.

"Alexandra Braus! Wait up!"

"Leave me alone!" she screamed in fear although she knew that the man was not catching up with her as he had no horse.

Suddenly, her horse stood with his front legs throw up in the air like it had gone out of control. She felt herself being thrown back but she still kept holding on the reins tightly. Unfortunately, the angle was too steep to keep herself sitting on its back. Her legs slipped off from the stirrups, her fingers wrapping around the reins could not support her whole body either, and she was thrown out of the horse when it suddenly got back on its feet. She felt herself flying in mid-air while her vision spun crazily. Finally, she hit her back against the cold wet soil and a sudden jolt of pain hit her ribs and left elbow joint. She let out a low groan and curled into a ball on her right side, hugging her ribs and left elbow close to her.

As soon as she pressed her inner forearm against her chest, another jolt of pain was felt. Truthfully, it hurt more than the ribs and elbow. She squinted at the familiar purple bruise on her forearm as she tried to soothe the pain by drawing circles on it with her thumb. While doing so, it finally dawned on her that she was dreaming. She found herself curl up in her soft bed with a blanket covering her whole body. The bruise on her arm was so dark underneath the blanket.

Quickly, she sat up and checked her bruise which was still aching. The pain in her elbow and ribs wore off almost immediately after she had awoken from her slumber. The pain indeed felt so real. Sasha brought her knees to her chest and hid her face behind her knees, sighing tiredly to herself. She could not believe that she had just dreamt of herself hunting after thinking about wanting to learn some hunting skills. Furthermore, she had been waking up feeling 'pain' all over her body lately. It was as if her nervous system was playing a trick on her during her sleep. Strangely, she dreamt of 'Alexandra', a name that had bothered her the most.

Every bit and piece of what seemed to be the 'memory' of another Sasha felt so sentimental and sad, just like the time when she had dreamt of _him_ lacing his fingers with hers as she did the same too. At the same time, all those 'memories' that she had up till this day felt like it was hers although they were actually not. The man-eating giants, her dying state, her desire to save a man whom she had never met before, her failure to keep her promise, her words that couldn't reach him… And even when she had first met _him_ , something clicked at the back of her mind. A whiff of sadness and nostalgia came upon her as she had reached out to shake _his_ hand and greeted _him_ with _his_ name.

She felt that she had been waiting for this day to come when she could finally meet _him_ again, but she did not know why. She felt like she had owed _him_ a lot, but she did not know what she had owed _him_. She felt like she had known _him_ for the longest time ever, but she did not know how and when they had met in the past. On their first meeting, she was overwhelmed with so many unexplained emotions that she had felt the need to flee from _his_ sight.

From that day onwards, her very first nightmare as a dying soldier started to haunt her.

-:-:-:-

It was finally Eren's birthday. Mikasa was told to distract Eren and lead him to the girls' dormitory without telling him the purpose of doing so. Till she received a text from Armin saying that they were ready to conduct the party, she could then lead Eren there. Thankfully, she did not have to work very hard at 'distracting' him since their family had their own birthday party. Grisha Jaeger, their father, took a day off from work to celebrate his son's special moment. Even Eren's half older brother, Zeke Jaeger, who was seldom home took half a day off from his work at the hospital to spend some time with his younger siblings.

Eren admired his older brother a lot ever since they were little. Eren would follow him around, almost everywhere. Zeke was intelligent and was good at everything in Eren's eyes. Despite being eight years apart, Zeke and Eren shared a nice sibling relationship. They used to play video games together before Zeke became a resident doctor in a local hospital. This meant that he could not go home often as he was frequently needed in the emergency unit. Luckily, Carla was a nurse who worked in the same hospital as him so sometimes, she would prepare some food in advance and give it to him during their breaks.

Even though Carla and Zeke were not blood-related, Carla cared for him like her son too while Zeke treated her like his own mother. He called her 'Mum' on a daily basis even during work. However, Mikasa seemed to dislike Zeke since young and Eren could never understand why because he could tell that Zeke liked her a lot and treated her like his baby sister by spoiling her with candies which Mikasa would then reject. When someone asked why she was being cold towards her old brother, Mikasa would say that she just couldn't stand people treating her like a small child and she hated candies.

As the family of five sat around the table with a vanilla-flavoured birthday cake with four cherries and chocolate flakes on top in front of Eren, they sang the birthday song and called Eren to make a wish before blowing out the two large candles. Eren sliced the cake into six slices and gave the cake slices to his parents first, then to Zeke and Mikasa. While everyone on the table was savouring the cake, Grisha started talking about how much Eren had grown and reminiscing about the past when his three children were very little. Carla shared some silly jokes which the children had used to do in the past. What had seemed like an act of disobedience and naivety became a funny story to tell, no doubt embarrassing Eren, Mikasa and Zeke. While Eren kept denying the funny stories, Mikasa and Zeke decided to join the 'toast', making the birthday boy even more flustered than before.

"Stop teasing me! Geez! My special day isn't for you guys to make fun of me!" Eren said in exasperation, hiding his reddened face behind his palm.

"Remember that time when Eren played the swing with some kids? He was the only big brother there and he wanted to show off by standing on the swing, but he fell flat on the ground in the end," Zeke recounted with a laugh which sounded tired from all the laughing feats earlier.

Eren peeked at Zeke with narrowed eyes through the gaps of his fingers, and cried, "Not funny, okay. I wasn't showing off! The swing broke because I was heavy!"

Carla clasped her hands together as her lips formed into an oval shape as if she had remembered something and said, "Oh, that! I was so worried when I saw you fall off the swing. Luckily, you only had a cut on your knee. But you were crying non-stop even when we got home."

"I didn't cry!"

"Eren was always trying to act tough but was actually a crybaby," Mikasa commented with a small smile.

Upon hearing that, Eren removed his hand from his flustered face, looked at Mikasa sulkily, and then looked at his other family members with an angry frown. He grunted, "Can all of you stop? I'm going to die here if you continue roasting my pride."

"Grisha, you know, our boy has grown up a lot," Carla turned to speak to her husband, who was sitting next to her, with a soft giggle.

The older man with a pair of round glasses looked at his wife in puzzlement. Seeing her cheeky face which was similar to Eren's whenever he tried to hint something or had something up his sleeve, Grisha immediately knew that her statement was not exactly pointing at how much Eren had grown up. It was probably going to be regarding on her recent complaints about Eren's shut-in behaviour. Ever since the school semester had ended, Eren had been shutting himself in his room and only left his room when it was mealtime or he had to leave the house for external activities. Strangely, he was not on his video games which he loved so much. He would play those games excessively in the living room during his holidays, and would force Mikasa to play with him since Zeke could no longer play with him due to work. Having no interest in video games, Mikasa would usually play one or two rounds with him and quit after that. Sometimes, Armin would come over to play the games with him.

It had already been two weeks since his break had commenced, yet he had not touched his game console according to Carla. At first, Grisha thought that it might be a good thing that Eren was giving up his gaming habit. However, Carla had pointed out that perhaps he was playing computer games in his room or watching some 'sinful' materials on the internet. Because Grisha had been very busy over the past few weeks, neither did he have a chance to talk to Eren properly, nor did he have the time to check their household modem to confirm his wife's suspicion.

"I always think that he would only love his games for the rest of his life. But now, I think he has a crush on someone," Carla continued as her gaze slowly made its way to her son whose eyes were looking blankly at her. "It's not porno that he's hiding under his bed, Grisha. They are hand-drawn pictures of a girl. Many of them!"

"Wow! Seriously? Eren could draw?" Zeke mused. "I want to see, Eren!"

"What the...! Mum, did you enter my room?" Eren asked in disbelief. "How could you do that?"

"I had to clean your room," Carla replied with a smile, hiding the fact that she had actually gone in to check what he was actually up to for the past two weeks. "So, what kind of girl she is? Who is this Alexandra girl? Your schoolmate?"

"Huh, Mum, no! It's just some random drawing I saw," Eren muttered and looked away. "I don't even know her..." He paused and carefully looked at Mikasa who was looking at him at the corner of her eyes. Knowing that explaining everything to his parents and his older brother would be difficult and might raise more concerns than it should, he then cracked an awkward smile to his parents and continued, "Let's just say I'm learning how to sketch a human's face and body lately. Right, Mikasa?"

He expected Mikasa to agree with him as he trusted her that she would not tell them about his strange feelings over an old portrait displayed from a museum. However, she just shrugged and looked away from him, not saying anything to back his words up. Suddenly, the atmosphere around the dining table became awkward.

Sensing the awkwardness, Grisha cleared his throat and spoke to Carla with an assuring smile, "Now, at least we know that Eren isn't into pornography. He's into art."

"Yeah, of course." Carla smiled back. "But how sad. I thought my son is having a tiny crush on someone. There are so many pictures of that Alexandra girl."

"Hey, Eren, drawing only girls isn't very healthy too, you know," Zeke cracked a joke, trying to ease the tension around Eren and Mikasa which he had no idea how it had come about. "Ah, I know. How about you draw your older brother?"

Zeke pointed at himself with a grin. Eren frowned at his brother's joke and request, and shook his head in response.

"I gave up drawing. Mikasa doesn't like it."

"Eh?" Zeke rose his eyebrows quizzically as he turned to look at Mikasa. "Why?"

Mikasa popped the last piece of cake into her mouth and calmly chewed it. Seeing that she was not going to say anything about this, Eren wanted to say something that could change the subject to stop his parents and Zeke from mentioning about the drawing again. Neither did he want to talk about it too. Ever since Mikasa had found out that he was obsessed with a portrait, she was very upset about his behaviour. Telling him to stop thinking about it was easy but it was, in fact, difficult to stop by himself. Like what Mikasa had wanted, he wished that picture would get out of his mind. He wished that he wasn't plagued with this constant feeling of unknown sadness. He wished that the wailing of someone would stop ringing in his ears when he closed his eyes.

He wanted to get rid of an unknown memory which had appeared once in his dream that night after coming home from the amusement park. It was a strange dream of himself calling 'Alexandra' to carry on with her shooting practice while he secretly drew her. It was an ugly sketch but 'Alexandra' said that she liked it a lot when she had found out about his drawing. She took the parchment paper from him and smiled radiantly at her own portrait. Although he knew that she was just praising him because she did not want to make him feel bad about his bad art, he was inwardly happy that he could make her smile. The girl reminded him so much of someone in many ways. At that moment, he could not figure it out who 'Alexandra' had resembled. However, the dream ended with him saying the person's name when he wanted to call out to 'Alexandra'.

 _'Hey, Sasha.'_

Because of it, he had woken up and felt very confused thereafter. He couldn't believe that he had confused Sasha with that girl in the portrait. That was when he realised his mind was so screwed up. The memory had been in his mind for days and he felt the need to find out more about it. Initially, he thought that by sketching out the girl could give him answers to those unknown feelings but the more he drew her, the more he fell into a state of inner despair. He was so confused about everything that he did not know what was happening to him.

Fortunately, the one who was so adamant about making him stop was Mikasa. She ensured that he would not touch a single piece of paper and pencil. She made sure to take him out of the house to engage him in other things so he would not think about that. He appreciated her efforts but all he wanted her was to understand what he was going through his head. However, Mikasa seemed quite negative in hearing him out. She was not like this in the past as she would always listen to his troubles and nonsense without complaints, but she appeared to be resistant when the topic about the portrait was brought up. Remembering that the portrait was found in the main house of the Ackerman family, he once thought that Mikasa had seen that portrait before and questioned her about it since her biological father was an Ackerman. Who knows? 'Alexandra' could be Mikasa's ancestor. However, Mikasa replied that she had never seen that picture before and demanded him to stop asking her about it. So, he did.

"It's just that-"

Before Eren could continue what he wanted to say to his older brother, Mikasa interrupted him in a soft monotone, "Those drawings were so ugly. Therefore, I told him to stop and do something more productive."

Eren turned to look at her again, frowning deeply. Meanwhile, Zeke chuckled at Mikasa's words, being reminded of the fact that most of Eren's art homework was used to be done by either Carla or Zeke. If not for their help, his art would have gotten an overall failing grade. Though Mikasa was not in her place to call his art ugly, at least she could obtain a pass in her art homework without anyone's help.

"I made some improvement, didn't I? I could finally draw the eyes," Eren pointed out to Mikasa sulkily. "You could even tell it was a face!"

"Did I?" Mikasa gave him a blank stare. "It was ugly anyway. You should do something else instead. Art isn't for you."

"I can't disagree with that," Grisha remarked with a laugh.

"Now, now. Don't be upset, Eren. They are just joking with you. Most importantly, you should do something that you enjoy the most," Carla stated with a warm smile, shifting the plate that had the remaining slice of cake on it towards the birthday boy. "Here. Have the last slice."

Taking in his mother's words silently, he stopped frowning. Instead, he sighed heavily to himself and brought the plate closer to him. He muttered, "I'm going to give this to Armin. He's coming later, I think."

"Oh yes, he usually comes on your birthday. I think I better prepare some desserts for him too!" Carla said thoughtfully as she stood up from her chair and started clearing the empty plates on the table.

"Armin is not coming," Mikasa blurted but soon realised that she shouldn't have said it after earning a curious stare from Eren.

"What do you mean? Did he tell you that he's not coming?"

"Uhh... I guess," Mikasa mumbled awkwardly, pulling her red scarf up her chin. "I actually don't know."

"What?" Eren knitted his eyebrows together, thinking that Mikasa wasn't making any sense at all. "I think I will check with him myself. Give me a minute."

"Wait-"

Before Mikasa could stop him from calling Armin, he left the table and headed to the living room, taking his handphone out of his pocket. Sitting on the couch, he dialled for his friend and placed the handphone device against his ear. Mikasa stood up and stared at his figure from afar with an anxious look on her face. She felt like pinching her mouth for nearly letting the cat out of the bag. What should she do? If Eren found out the reason why Armin would not be coming to their house, then the surprise party wouldn't be a surprise anymore. But hold on, Armin could ignore his call, right? Or he could just act like he wasn't preparing a birthday party, right? Armin was smart so she shouldn't be too nervous about his response, she convinced herself. He could definitely think of a way to not let Eren find out about the party. Mikasa clasped her hands together and muttered a 'sorry' to the imaginary Armin in her head. _I will leave it to you, Armin!_

"What are you doing, Mikasa? Did something happen?" she heard Zeke asked in a worried voice.

Mikasa dropped her hands to her side and narrowed her eyes at her older brother who was staring at her in concern. She mentally brushed away that look and looked away with a soft snort.

"Nope."

"Mikasa, this is not the right way to treat to your brother," Carla chided as she took Mikasa's plate and stacked it on top of the other plates. Placing a hand on her hip, she looked at Mikasa with a small frown and continued, "He's just concerned about you and Eren."

"There's nothing to be concerned about," the girl retorted and took the stack of plates from Carla. "Let me help you clear them, Mother."

With that said, she hurriedly entered the kitchen before Carla could lecture her about speaking nicely to Zeke as usual. Meanwhile, Zeke looked at Mikasa with a sad smile and then shifted his gaze to his parents. Carla was shaking her head and sighing away in defeat while Grisha was quietly drinking water from his brown mug, keeping his silence. Zeke swallowed hard and broke the awkward silence again.

"Mum, Dad, it's okay. I guess that, to her, I am not part of her family… yet," Zeke conceded. "I also guess that I shouldn't have asked that. It's really none of my business."

"I'm sorry, Zeke." Carla walked towards him and gave him a gentle stroke on his head as she stared at him apologetically. "I will talk to Mikasa later. I hope that she will accept you as her brother, like how she has accepted Eren."

"I understand, Mum. Perhaps our age gap is quite large, so she doesn't feel comfortable with me. I totally understand that. I'm not upset at all," Zeke tried to comfort Carla whom he knew was constantly feeling very responsible and keeping a lookout for her children's behaviour.

Grisha wrapped his arm around his son's shoulder and lightly shook him, earning a puzzled stare from his son. Grisha then smiled reassuringly at him.

"It has been so long since you return home, Zeke. Before you return to work later, do you want to spend some time with Eren and Mikasa? I think they will enjoy your company, especially Eren. A game or two would be good, yes?"

Zeke's eyes brightened at the thought of spending some time with his younger brother, and perhaps with his little sister if she was willing to. He nodded with a smile.

"Yes, Dad. After Eren is done making his call, I will ask him what he wants to play with me later."

-:-:-:-

Meanwhile, Eren's call managed to get through. It had taken his friend less than five ringing sounds to pick up his call.

 _"Hi, Eren! What's up?"_ Armin sounded a little surprised.

"Armin," Eren greeted. "Are you free later?"

 _"Err... No. Why?"_

"Just asking. I... I want to play some video games with you," Eren replied, sounding a little disappointed. "It's okay if you can't come over today. We can play some other day."

 _"I'm sorry, Eren. I am running some errands for my grandpa. My grandpa is ill so I have lots of things on my hands now. Talk to you later?"_

Feeling worried for Armin's grandfather, Eren furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Sure. I hope your grandpa will get well soon. If you need any help, just let me know. I will come over quickly."

 _"Thanks, Eren. Thanks for being so understanding."_

 _"I'm back!"_ Suddenly, a loud enthusiastic female voice was heard, resonating in the background at Armin's side. _"Why are you all so quiet?"_

Eren rose eyebrows quizzically. Why did the voice sound so familiar? Was Armin with someone else?

"Are you with Krista?" he asked Armin curiously.

 _"H-h-huh?"_ Armin's voice sounded anxious and surprise all of a sudden, increasing Eren's curiosity.

"Krista is with you, isn't she? I think I heard a girl's voice," Eren restated. "I'm relieved that she's helping you out. Are the both of you at your house?"

 _"Yeah..."_

 _"Oh crap, Armin is speaking to someone... Huh... What... Wait, with Eren?!"_ the female voice was heard again.

 _"Sasha, shhhhhh!"_ a softer voice was heard. This time, it sounded like a male's voice.

 _Sasha?_ Eren pressed his handphone harder against his ear in surprise and puzzlement. What was Sasha doing at Armin's house? Wasn't that voice belonged to Krista? It felt like Sasha's voice at first but it didn't make sense for her to be at his house, helping Armin with his errands or whatsoever. Actually, there was nothing wrong with Sasha helping Armin out with his personal stuff. But it just didn't make sense because they weren't really very close. Knowing Armin, he wouldn't dare to bother someone with his errands unless he really needed help. Usually, he would call Krista (his closest family member at the time being), Eren or Mikasa if that was the case. That was why he thought that Krista was the one who was with Armin. This time, Eren felt confused, not knowing what was going on.

"Is Sasha with you?" he asked Armin.

 _"Huh, uhhh... No. You have mistaken, Eren."_

"How's that so? I heard her voice!"

 _"You are hearing things. There's no one next to me now. I am just outside my house... alone with my grandpa inside the house. Or perhaps someone is trying to hijack our call, sending weird signals to our phone call. That's why you heard things that I couldn't hear."_

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Eren said in disbelief. "I swear I heard the person saying my name."

 _"I shouldn't speak any further. I think the hijacker is secretly listening to our conversation. I better hang up now."_

"Who bothers to listen to our conversation?!"

 _"Bye, Eren."_

"Wait, Armin!"

The line was quickly cut off at Armin's side. Eren was totally lost for words as his hand that was holding his handphone dropped to the couch with a soft thud. He sat on the couch, looking confused and stunned as he stared at his own reflection on the black television screen. What was going on at Armin's side? He felt really bad for thinking that there was something fishy going on. He knew Armin wouldn't lie to him but he was sure that he had heard Sasha's voice in the background. Not once, but almost twice! Also, there was another male's voice shushing Sasha. The voice was harsh and a little softer, hence Eren could not identify whose voice it belonged to. But it definitely didn't sound like Armin's grandfather. As much as he wanted to believe Armin that he was alone with his grandfather, he could not help but feel bothered by the fact that he had heard Sasha's voice. Of course, there was no way a 'hijacker' would interfere their call! That was absurd!

While Eren was still lost in his thoughts, Zeke walked into the living room with a few game cartridges in his hands and headed towards a plastic box that was placed next to the television. Seeing that his older brother was taking out the video game console from the box, Eren snapped out of his thoughts. Curious, he stood up and headed towards his brother.

"Hey Zeke, what are you going to play?" he asked, squatting next to his brother who was connecting the game console to the television.

"I don't know. I want to play a game with you before I leave for work," Zeke muttered a reply and turned to Eren with a warm smile. "Are you free now?"

Plastering a small smile on his face, Eren replied hesitantly, "Y-Yeah, sure."

Eren picked up the game cartridges and looked at the game titles. He had played all of them before. Usually, he wouldn't mind playing them again and again because the game quests would never get boring no matter how many times he had played. However, this time, he did not feel like playing video games despite having Zeke's accompany. Although he missed playing with his older brother, the feeling of dread and fatigue just made him feel like going back to his bedroom or continuing lazing on the couch. He could not comprehend why he was feeling so moody out of the blue.

"So, what game do you want to play?"

"Hmmm..."

He frowned as he continued to stare at the game cartridges, couldn't decide on what game to play with Zeke. He really did not feel like playing but since his brother seldom returned home, he wanted his brother to have a good time. He placed the cartridges on the floor, closed his eyes and randomly let his fingers loomed across the cartridges before resting on one of them. He opened his eyes and picked the cartridge up, showing the game to Zeke.

"How about 'The Last Vampire'?" Eren asked Zeke. "I think you haven't completed the final quest yet."

Zeke took the cartridge from Eren and his eyes quickly scanned the graphics on the cartridge before exclaiming,"Ah, good idea! Let's play this, shall we?"

"The final quest is difficult. Needs the player to be strategic in using his resources and attack moves. I couldn't complete it without Armin's help," Eren advised, helping Zeke to insert the cartridge into the game console. "Anyway, I think you can clear this quest easily because you're good at strategic games."

"Nah. I'm not good at them," Zeke said humbly with a soft chuckle.

Eren handed one of the game controllers to Zeke and the brothers went to sit on the couch while waiting for the game to load. Seeing his younger brother look rather wan as compared to earlier when they were on the table eating the birthday cake, Zeke knew something was amiss.

"What did Armin say? Did he say that he is not coming?" he questioned Eren.

"Uh?" Eren turned to Zeke absentmindedly before giving him a downcasted look. "Yeah, he said that he had to run some errands."

So, he was upset that his friend couldn't come to his house, Zeke thought to himself.

Eren turned his body slightly towards his older brother and spoke again, "Can I ask you something? I know it will sound stupid but… err… just a question, is it alright?"

Zeke raised his eyebrows in curiosity and nodded, urging him to go on.

"Is it possible for someone to interfere a phone line, perhaps like spying on our conversation?"

"Yes, why not?"

Eren frowned and continued, "If the interferer speaks, can we hear his voice through the phone?"

Zeke rubbed his chin in deep thoughts before replying in an unsure manner, "I guess so. But it won't be very clear. It will probably sound very static, you know, like those voices we would hear from a walkie-talkie but we don't know whose voices they belong to. Frankly, I don't really know how these voices sound like because I have never heard them before." Then, Zeke looked at the television screen which was indicating that the game had loaded, and he pressed the 'O' button on the controller to continue the game. He spoke again, "Why did you ask, Eren?"

Ignoring his question, Eren asked, "Zeke, if I can hear people's voices loud and clear in the background at the other side of the line, does that mean there are really people with the other caller right?"

"Yeah, obviously." Zeke glanced at Eren, giving him a brief weird look for stating the most obvious thing ever. "It isn't your first time using the phone, right?"

Eren looked away from his brother and bit his lower lip in disbelief. Then, he muttered to himself, "Did Armin just lie to me?"

Upon hearing his words, Zeke tilted his head in puzzlement. "Did your friend just ditch you for someone else? And worse, on your birthday."

"His grandpa is ill! Of course, he will ditch me for his grandpa!"

"I think 'ditch' is a wrong word to use here, little brother."

"I heard Sasha's voice too," Eren stated.

"Who's Sasha?"

"A girl from my class."

"So? She's probably helping Armin out," Zeke wondered aloud and he scrolled through the game quests on the television screen. "Hey, is this the last quest? Right at the bottom?"

"Right, she's probably helping Armin out. They are friends." Eren used his game controller and helped Zeke to select the last quest at the bottom of the selection list. "I swear I could hear her voice clearly in the background. I don't know why Armin had to hide it from me. I mean, he could have just admitted that he was with someone else rather than trying to cover it up with the call interference thing."

Zeke shifted his eyes back to Eren, not fully understanding the situation between him and Armin although he knew that he was quite upset with Armin's 'lie'. Zeke couldn't see the problem. Firstly, Eren had admitted that his friend would obviously 'ditch' him for his grandfather. He seemed to understand his friend's reason for 'ditching' him. Secondly, he couldn't be that upset just because his friend did not admit that he was with someone else, right? For twenty years he had grown up with Eren, he had never thought that his little brother would be overly sensitive about this. He might question the lie a little but was never this upset as he would come out with a possible good reason why someone lied to him and forget about it soon after. He was that simple. At this moment, Eren looked like an overly attached _boy-friend_.

"Could it be that you are upset that Armin has chosen that girl over you on your birthday?" Zeke asked in a teasing tone.

"Huh? No way!" Eren shouted, giving Zeke a weird look too. "Why would I be upset over this? His grandpa is ill, remember? Maybe he needed some help and called Sasha over."

"Then, why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset, okay?" Eren said in a taut voice before turning his gaze back to the television screen, preparing himself for the quest to start. "Let's not talk about this. You have to leave after 4pm, am I right? We don't have much time left."

Not saying a word in response, Zeke adjusted himself on the couch and leaned slightly forward with his game controller held in front of his chest. His and Eren's avatars appeared on the screen, surrounded by digital trees and fauna in a dark forest. As he moved the left analogue stick around to move his avatar, following the direction of where Eren's avatar was heading towards, he stole a quick glance at Eren at the corner of his eyes. His brother's eyes were glued to the screen, like how they normally would whenever he was so focused on the game. Seeing that he wasn't as upset as before, Zeke brought his attention back to the game only to find Mikasa walking casually in front of the television with some wet stains on her pale yellow baggy shirt. She went into her bedroom and closed the door behind her, neither giving her brothers a look as she walked past them nor being interested in the game they were playing. Zeke let out a heavy breath as he brought his attention back to the television screen again.

The game wasn't easy, as what Eren had told him. Since Eren had played this quest before, the two brothers could successfully clear some stages in that quest without much effort. Most of the time, Eren was the one who told Zeke what to do rather than letting Zeke do the 'strategic' thinking. Since Eren was enjoying himself, or so Zeke thought, Zeke just followed along and listened to Eren's 'Armin said' advice although he had some other ideas on clearing the stages. If Armin's plan could clear this quest, so why not use it? Once in awhile, he would use his tricks to defeat the monsters, earning a loud excited 'yes' from his younger brother each time he won. In the middle of the game, their parents sat on the couch and watched them play for awhile before engaging in small chats to which the brothers ignored as they were totally immersed in the game.

Just then, a handphone ringtone was heard coming from the kitchen. Carla stood up and made her way to the kitchen. After that, she came into the living room with a grey handphone buzzing and ringing loudly in her hand. This time, everyone in the living room looked at her curiously.

"Isn't that Mikasa's handphone?" Grisha asked.

"Yes. Armin is calling her," Carla replied as she made her way towards Mikasa's doorstep.

Eren rose his eyebrows. "Armin?"

Suddenly, Mikasa's bedroom door swung open. The dark-haired girl emerged out of her room, still in her baggy shirt, and walked hurriedly towards her mother. She extended her arm and took the handphone.

"Thanks, Mother," she quickly said. "Ah, I wonder why he calls."

Her eyes were trying to avoid contact with Eren's eyes as she made a turn back to her room. Again, she shut the door and walked to the corner of her room far away from the door before picking up Armin's call.

 _"Mikasa!"_ came a loud anxious familiar voice.

"What, Armin? Are you guys ready?"

 _"Eren didn't suspect anything, did he?"_

Mikasa deadpanned, "About you being with Sasha? Yes."

She heard Armin sigh before speaking again, _"By the way, we are ready for the party. You can bring him over anytime when the both of you are ready. According to Ymir, the Dorm Master will be temporarily out of office at 5pm."_

"Okay, noted."

 _"Don't let Eren know that we have a surprise for him, okay?"_ Armin reminded her.

"You nearly busted it," Mikasa stated even though she knew that she was the one who had made Eren call Armin. She felt bad for that.

 _"I am not entirely to be blamed, Mikasa. If Sasha didn't shout right after she came home with the birthday cake, Eren wouldn't have heard her."_

"You could have said it was Krista."

 _"Hey, Eren isn't dumb. He knows that was Sasha's voice."_

Mikasa sat on her bed and asked, "Then, what should I say now? Eren knows that I'm speaking to you right now. But of course, he can't hear us. And you told him that your grandpa is ill if I heard him correctly. I don't know how to get him go over to the girls' dormitory without raising suspicion. He would definitely ask why we are going there."

 _"Oh, wait. Let me think."_ There was a long pause. _"Hmm... I think I have an idea, Mikasa. Listen, here's the plan."_

-:-:-:-

The Jaeger brothers had finally completed the final quest, defeating the last vampire in the game. The game ended with a dark solemn music and credits. While the music was playing, Eren and Zeke stood up from the couch and began stretching themselves after sitting for almost more than forty minutes without moving much. Grisha was already sleeping soundly on the couch, totally unaware that the game had ended. Meanwhile, Carla was in the kitchen, preparing some hot tea for the family. As she had heard from Eren that Armin wasn't coming over to their house, she did not prepare any dessert. However, she was planning to do so before dinner time so that everyone could eat the desserts after their meals.

"I think I have to leave soon. It was a good game, Eren. Thanks for playing with me," Zeke said to Eren with a smile, giving him a light pat on his back.

Eren scratched his cheek awkwardly and replied, "Sure. I hope you had fun with the last quest. I just realised that I was speaking a little too much during the game. I should have asked what kind of strategy you are going for."

Zeke laughed. "It's alright. Armin's strategy is good! At least I could clear this game before going to work again."

Eren returned a smile back to his older brother. As he did so, he heard a creaking sound coming from one of the bedrooms behind him. He turned around and saw Mikasa walking out of her room in a light pink dress with her red scarf wrapped around her neck and a small backpack carried on her back. She walked past the television again and headed to the kitchen, pretending not to realise that Eren and Zeke were staring at her.

"Mother, I'm heading out now," Mikasa said loudly. "I will be back home a little late tonight. No dinner for me. Thanks."

Carla stopped pouring water into the teapot and turned to look at Mikasa in surprise. She queried, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to a friend's dormitory. My friend has hurt herself very badly and she can't move. I am very worried about her. So, I want to pay her a visit. I will have dinner with her too," Mikasa explained, looking rather uncomfortable as she spoke.

Carla covered her mouth as she gasped worriedly. "Is that so? I hope your friend will get better soon!"

"Yes, I am going to see her now. Bye, Mother."

"See you later, Mikasa."

Mikasa left the kitchen and headed back to the living room. This time, she couldn't help but notice Eren's worried stare. As much as she had tried to remain normal, she just couldn't ignore his worry look on his face. He had certainly overheard what she had just said, which was her initial intention, and he seemed to have some idea who 'this friend' she was referring to. The only girl-friends Mikasa had and also staying in a girls' dormitory were Ymir, Krista and Sasha. It had to be one of them she was referring to. Eren walked towards her and stopped right in front of her, blocking her path. Mikasa looked down calmly, trying to hide the awkwardness and nervousness building inside her. Lying to Eren in order to make him less suspicious of the surprise party seemed to be a harder job for her. She hated lying, as well as people lying to her. She couldn't believe that she was the one who had to act and lie in the end. Who was the big idiot who had wanted to hold a surprise party for Eren?

Oh wait, it was actually Armin's idea. And she was the one who agreed first before others agreed.

"Who got hurt?" Eren asked in a worried voice.

 _Now's the chance._ "Sasha," she answered, still hiding from Eren's gaze.

His eyes widened. "Wh-What? How come?"

"The bowstring hit her arm so many times during practice. It hurt so much that she couldn't move her arm anymore. She may have to withdraw from the competition next Thursday if she still doesn't get better," she let the words slip off her tongue smoothly without thinking as if she had rehearsed these sentences many times before facing Eren.

Upon hearing that, Eren furrowed his eyebrows and took a step back away from Mikasa. His hands began trembling slightly at his sides.

"How could she..." He found himself lost for words and he ran his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner. "Argh! But she has been practising so hard every day!"

"So? That's her fault for not taking any precaution herself," Mikasa retorted.

"Her armguard is damaged," Eren defended. "She probably has a reason why she hasn't bought a new armguard yet."

"Then, is there a reason why you haven't given her _that_ yet?"

"I..."

"Hold on. Wasn't Sasha with Armin at his house a moment ago? How did she hurt herself with a bowstring?" Zeke suddenly interrupted them.

Mikasa glanced up at Zeke, speechless. She did not take the earlier conversation between Armin and Eren into account. So, her lie did not make sense anymore! Even Eren began looking at her questionably after hearing Zeke. She really hated being stuck in a situation where she had to think of a way to piece lies together and follow up with someone else's mess. She bit her lower lip and thought very hard.

Then, she let out a heavy sigh and tried to give a favourable explanation, "She didn't feel much pain at first, still manageable. But after helping Armin out, her arm started to hurt a lot each time she tried to move it. Now, she couldn't even feel her whole arm anymore, not even her fingers."

"That must be a terrible injury," Zeke commented as he rubbed his chin in deep thought, earning an anxious stare from Eren. "There are a few factors leading to this issue. But I need to see her condition before making assumptions and a diagnosis."

"Tell me the factors," Eren demanded impatiently.

Zeke raised a finger and began listing, "One, her nerves where the injury is are damaged. Two, her ligament is damaged but I highly think that this is not the case unless she has overstrained her ligament during her practice. Three, which I highly doubt so because it has got to do with the neural connection in her primary motor cortex involving the movement of her arm," Zeke paused for a moment before adding, "Never mind the third point unless she has a brain injury."

Eren paled upon hearing Zeke's list of factors while Mikasa stared wide-eyed at Zeke, feeling thankful towards him for the first time in her life. _Use Sasha's name to get him to come here_ , was what Armin had told her to do. Maybe Zeke's words could back up her lies and motivate Eren to go with her to 'see Sasha' like what Armin had planned.

"Mikasa," Eren called her, causing her to look at him again. "Could you please... check on Sasha? Let me know how she is. I hope she's okay."

His face was totally drained of colour. She could tell that he was extremely worried about her and all sorts of possibilities which Zeke had mentioned were messing his mind up. It reminded her of those times when he was waiting anxiously for _her_ return after hearing that the site that _she_ was sent to survey was filled with danger. He had even wanted to go after _her_ if not for the authorities tying him down and her doing all she could to prevent him from befriending death. However, this time, even when there was nothing stopping him, he did not take a step forward.

And this time, she didn't want to be that old self again. She wanted Eren to be happy and she had promised him long ago that she would support him no matter what. Even if he couldn't remember her promise, she wanted to fulfil it.

"Don't you want to see her?" she asked Eren softly, a smile slowly made a way to her face.

"You know that I can't," Eren muttered as he cast his eyes to the ground dejectedly.

"The Dorm Master won't be in at 5pm. No one will notice."

Eren's eyes shot upwards immediately, staring straight at her wide-eyed.

"I believe that you have something for her too," she added with a wider smile. "Why not take this chance to give her?"

"Well..." The dark-haired boy turned flustered, regaining some colours to his face. His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to avoid her gaze. "Can you give that to her on my behalf?"

Mikasa frowned and returned a quick reply, "No."

"Please?"

"I think she will be happy if you are the one who gives it to her," she urged on, finally finding herself speaking genuinely out of all the lies that she had concocted. Putting the birthday party aside, she really wanted him to go and give that thing to Sasha by himself. He had stalled for too long and all he needed was a push from someone. "So, Eren, let's go together. Shall we?"

"O-Okay," he stammered awkwardly as a small blush crept across his cheeks. "Let me ch-change first."

Without further ado, he walked past Zeke and went into his room. As soon as his door closed, Zeke who had been observing his brother's and his sister's conversation had come to understand the situation a bit more. He returned his gaze to Mikasa and noticed her staring back at him with the same smile that she had given Eren earlier. It was rare to see her smile, especially towards Zeke, and he was totally surprised.

Not wanting to lose this chance to talk to Mikasa since she didn't look very cold at this moment, Zeke started, "Could it be that Eren and that g-"

"No," she quickly interrupted and her cold features returned, snubbing him almost immediately.

Zeke feigned an angry look and said, "Why do you always have to be like that? I haven't finished speaking."

Mikasa turned away and walked towards the foyer, ignoring Zeke again. She picked up her sandals from the shoe rack, carefully placed them on the floor and started putting them on. As she did so, Eren came out of his room in his pair of jeans and a polo tee which had lots of creases as he hadn't ironed it yet. Zeke noticed that he was carrying a small white plastic bag with a familiar sports logo printed on it. It didn't take very long for Zeke to know what was inside that bag, however, it was only then he realised the reason why Eren was upset earlier. It was actually not Armin whom he was upset about. He saw Eren quickly put on his track shoes and wave him goodbye. Then, Eren left the house with Mikasa in a flash, not even informing his sleeping father and his mother that he was heading out with Mikasa. Because of that, Zeke decided to do it for his brother instead. Since Grisha was still sound asleep despite all the noise in the living room, Zeke went to the kitchen to inform Carla first.

"What? So, he left with Mikasa?" Carla asked, looking rather astounded than upset that he had just left without informing her.

Normally, Carla would be angry if her children left the house or went somewhere else without telling her beforehand. Furthermore, she was already done preparing tea, together with Eren's share. After seeing Zeke nod, Carla began sighing away and muttering about how Eren and Mikasa were inseparable since young as they were always together everywhere they went. She thought that it was kind of expected that he would follow her to visit her friend and she should have asked Mikasa earlier if he would be tagging along with her. Zeke chuckled at her statements. He could not deny those words either.

"Mum..." Zeke broke her train of thoughts as he smiled gently at her. "Maybe you're right about him."

Her eyebrow arched quizzically and she asked, "What do you mean?"

"About Eren... He has grown up."

* * *

 **Hello, everyone! Time flies so fast and it's going to be 2018 in three days time. I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope 2018 will be a great year for all of you! I think some of the interesting things I have done this year were writing 'Reject Me Properly' and 'To Me from 2000 Years Ago'. Those are my first two SnK fics and I am glad to know some other authors/readers through these fics. They are really nice and encouraging! One of my new year resolutions for 2018 is to contribute more fanfics to the SnK fandom, maybe one-shots with Sasha being the main character (plus Levi's goodness, maybe, hahaha). I might want to write about Eren or Mikasa too ;)**

 **Before I end this author's note, I would like to thank _Lady Serai_ for reviewing the previous chapter. I would also like to thank those who favourited this story and those who have been silently reading this story as well. Well, the number of views gives me some sort of encouragement too :)**

 **Preview of Chapter 11:**

 _"You are so careless. I can't believe I have to do this for you. What a brat."_

 _A room with only two people. She was sitting on a stool and facing a person while he lowered his upper body to match her eye level as he wrapped something around her arm. His gentle fingers brushed against her skin as he tried to secure the thing with a tiny clip. Sasha couldn't help but smile at the familiar memory._

 _"To tell you the truth, there were times when I felt my heart waver because of you. But..."_

 **... But?**

 **Anyway, see you again next month** **!**


	11. Chapter 11

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **11**

Sasha ogled at the sight of multiple balloons hovering in the air, the thin colourful strips of foil dangling down from the ceiling, and a large birthday banner that was written 'Happy 20th Birthday, Eren!'. The once dull common room had become so colourful and lively that Sasha did not mind not removing these decorations even after the party was over. Soft pop music was played through Ymir's laptop while the small television was in standby mode with Krista's karaoke set attached to it. Honestly, she was surprised that the boys were insistent on having a karaoke session even though Ymir had warned them to keep their volume down to avoid being caught. Maybe a soft karaoke would be interesting.

But that wasn't all. The food. There was no way she could ignore the glorious sight ahead of her. The chocolate birthday cake and all the birthday treats, ranging from sweets to home-baked cookies, were laid out on the small table in front of the television. However, there were two more items that were missing - the carbonated drinks which they had bought. The drinks were still in the refrigerator... at Connie's dormitory. He had forgotten to bring them over and only realised it after decorating the place and laying out the food. Therefore, while Armin had gone to make his call to Mikasa to inform her that they were ready, Connie left the house to get the drinks. Since the boys' dormitory was just a stone's throw away, it was expected that he would come back very soon.

Sasha loved parties. The parties that she had gone to were always at some eating places where everyone could feast, but they were never 'home' parties like this. Back in her hometown, she and her father would celebrate their birthdays at any nearby restaurant. Sometimes, Connie would join them for a meal. Even if the people in their hometown held parties at home, it wouldn't be so decorative like this. At most, it would be a birthday cake on the table and some delicious treats to compliment the cake. People, ranging from family, friends to neighbours, would gather around the table, singing the birthday song or saying some well wishes to the birthday person. Even Christmas parties were just as simple as this. Despite how plain and simple they were, their parties were nevertheless lively and filled with noises and merrymaking. Perhaps it was just their culture, their own way of celebrating special occasions.

Sasha headed to the table and smiled sheepishly at the array of food before her eyes. She wished that she could start digging in the raisin cookies baked by Jean's mother! Not only did it smell nice, but it also came in many cute shapes and sizes. As she was savouring the sight of the cookies, someone came and stood next to the table as well. He cleared his throat, capturing her attention. Her eyes darted to the left and noticed Jean staring at her with an angry frown.

"Don't start eating, potato-girl."

"Huh?" Sasha let out a low offended voice and tilted her head upward with a line formed between her brows, trying to look equally intimidating. "I didn't even touch anything on the table. I'm just looking at them. Looking!"

"Yes, sure," he said, sounding unconvinced. "If I hadn't stopped you, you would have taken a piece from this plate."

"Geez!" The brunette rolled her eyes with a forced laugh. "There's no way I would do that, Jean. It's Eren's birthday!"

"Yeah, so?"

"The birthday kid should eat more!" Sasha grinned.

Jean backed away a little as he raised his hands to his mid-chest level and muttered, "Wow. I would never expect you to say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Hey, Jean, don't bully Sasha again," Marco suddenly stepped in between them and tugged Jean's sleeve. Then, he turned to Sasha and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Sasha. Jean is just excited about Eren's birthday party. Don't mind him too much."

"Hey! I'm not excited!" Jean retorted as he forcefully pulled his arm away to remove his sleeve from Marco's grasp. "I'm just reminding this glutton not to steal the food on the table!"

"I see. Jean is excited about Eren's birthday. How sweet," Sasha said, looking mildly amused.

"Are you even listening to me, Sasha?" Jean grunted at her who already seemed to ignore him.

Just then, giggling sounds was heard, coming from Krista's room. As Sasha, Marco and Jean turned their heads towards the direction of her room, they saw Krista and Ymir coming out of her room with their lips pursed as if they were trying hard not to laugh out loud. But Krista's redden cheeks gave it all away that something funny had happened in the room.

"Hey guys," Armin called out to his friends, specifically to the trio at the table, as soon as he stepped out of Krista's room too and gave them a thumbs up and a small smirk. "They are coming."

"Alright! We better tell Connie to hurry up," Sasha responded gleefully as she clasped her hands together.

On the other hand, Jean looked sceptically at Armin, then to Krista and Ymir. Feeling strange that they had left the room looking as if they had done something weird or funny in there, Jean narrowed his eyes at the three of them and asked, "What exactly happened in Krista's room? Why are you guys looking so suspicious?"

"What do you mean, Jean?" Krista smiled innocently at him. "We were calling Mikasa."

"Three people calling Mikasa?!"

"Nope, Armin called her. We listened," Ymir answered in her usual calm voice. "Besides, she needs some help in trying to bring Eren here. So, Krista and Armin were trying to give her some ideas... Well, I'm just there to accompany Krista."

"So, what were the ideas?" Marco asked.

"I told Mikasa to-"

Before Armin could finish speaking, Krista quickly placed her hand on his shoulder and interrupted him, "Armin, shouldn't we be calling Connie to hurry up and bring the drinks over? He is taking too long."

Armin turned to Krista with a small frown. "I call him?"

"Up to you," his distant cousin said with another smile.

Sasha raised her hand and suggested to her friends, "Perhaps give him another five minutes or so. He might have spotted the Dorm Master along the way here so he's probably taking his time because of that. Besides, I don't think Mikasa and Eren will reach here that fast."

"I think she's right," Marco agreed with a nod.

While everyone was talking to each other, Jean was keeping quiet as he stood behind Marco. His eyes were still narrowing at the three friends who had just come out of the room. No doubt that they were behaving very suspiciously. They had definitely come up with some silly ideas to get Eren to come here after seeing that Krista wasn't keen on letting Armin share what he had told Mikasa, as well as judging by the way they had left the room looking as if they could laugh at any moment. Krista might not have realised it but her face was so flustered. Even Armin's face looked amused, not to mention the smirk. Knowing Armin, he wouldn't look like that unless he thought of something savagely intelligent.

"Ahh! I think Connie is coming!" Sasha suddenly shouted and ran towards the entrance.

She grabbed the door handle and held her hands there with anticipation. She placed her ear against the door and waited patiently.

"Wow, Sasha. Can you actually hear Connie or something?" Jean asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Sasha glared at him and placed her finger on her lips. "Shhh!"

"Sasha has a keen sense of hearing," Krista said to Jean in a whispering voice.

Jean gawked at Krista and looked at Sasha with a surprised look, the back to Krista again and mumbled, "Are you serious?"

"She also has a keen sense of smell," Ymir added with a small smirk.

"What the..."

Krista purposely opened her eyes wide and added too, "She also has a pair of sharp eyes. She can see things from afar and she won't miss her target."

"Is she an animal or what? A dog?!" Jean said in disbelief.

"Hey, that's rude!" Ymir snapped at Jean, earning a quick glance from Sasha who wasn't paying attention to what they had said.

"Guys, Connie is here!" Sasha chirped as she pushed the handle down and opened the door, revealing her best friend covering in perspiration and his free hand balling into a fist which was preparing to knock on the door. "Hi, Connie! Welcome back!"

"Hey," Connie greeted her softly as his hand dropped to his side, looking dull and disappointed.

With a look of concern, she quickly stood aside and let Connie in her house. The tired boy walked past her and placed a large plastic bag on the floor next to the table in the common room. Right after he had done that, he slumped against the couch and let out a low frustrated groan.

"Damn my housemates!"

"What happened?" Armin queried.

Connie stood up again and looked at his friends with tears welling up in his eyes. He pressed his palms against each other and lowered his head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, guys!"

Sasha hurriedly came to Connie's side and placed her hand on his back, trying to comfort him even though she had no idea what had happened to him. She tilted her head a little and caught a glimpse of a tear slowly trickle down from his right eye. Her eyebrows began furrowing in concern. Did something happen when he returned back to his dormitory?

Connie brought his hand up to his face and used the back of his palm to wipe away his tears before continuing in a quivering voice, "Because I kept the drinks in the pantry, my housemates drank one bottle away without asking for my permission... We are left with one bottle now. I didn't think that they would drink it all. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, hey. Don't look so miserable." It was Jean's turn to comfort Connie as he placed his hand on his shoulder and gave it a light pat. "We aren't angry, right?"

Then, Jean looked at his friends, urging them to say something to Connie. Marco squatted next to the large plastic bag on the floor and checked the contents inside. True enough, there was only one bottle of apple soda left. However, much to his confusion and surprise, he saw a large transparent jar of yellowish brown liquid inside the plastic bag. He pushed the plastic bag down and revealed the jar to everyone.

"What's this, Connie?" Marco asked in puzzlement. "I don't remember us buying this."

"Oh my gosh." Ymir cringed in disgust at the sight of the yellowish-brown liquid. "Is that urine?"

"Obviously not! Why would I bring someone's pee here?" Connie shot back with a light tint of blush on his cheeks.

He picked up the jar and placed it on the table. Then, he opened up the lid and signalled his friends to come closer to him. He began to explain, "I feel bad that my housemates stole our drinks. It's my fault too for not informing them beforehand that they shouldn't touch those drinks. So, to compensate for the other bottle, I brought my mother's homemade draft beer here. This is all I have in my dorm for now."

"Draft beer?" Jean gasped and his face turned pale. "How did you manage to smuggle this into your dormitory? It's not allowed, right?"

Connie turned to look at his friend with a sheepish smile and answered, "No one knows if no one says anything."

"Hey Connie, are you trying to turn this birthday party into some drinking party?" Ymir interjected with a frown and her arms crossed.

"Hey, it's not like all of you can't drink, right? Only a little won't hurt!" Connie argued back. "Besides, my mother's draft beer isn't very strong unless you drink the whole jar of it."

Sasha rose an eyebrow quizzically. She didn't remember seeing her father remaining sober after drinking two mugs of that beer brewed by Connie's mother. Either her father had an extremely low tolerance for alcohol or this beer was totally different from that beer which her father had drunk. However, she trusted Connie that he wouldn't bring such a strong alcohol to a birthday party consisting of individuals who were yet to be able to enter into bars, much less illegally bringing a whole jar of it into the campus dormitory.

"I think we can leave this draft beer in the pantry for those who want to try out or don't want to drink the apple soda. Since we don't have enough drinks for now, maybe... uhh... Connie's beer could be our second option, perhaps?" Sasha suggested.

Krista gave Sasha a small nod and spoke, "I agree with Sasha. What do you all think?"

"Well..." Ymir scratched the back of her neck, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Since Krista agree, I think I don't mind this idea. But please, don't turn this party into a drinking party. Krista, Sasha and I can't risk losing our accommodation plan here."

"Yes. Keep this R-13!" Jean commented, earning a chuckle from Marco.

"Since Connie says this isn't a strong alcohol, I guess we can go ahead with this," Armin said.

After getting everyone's approval, Connie closed the lid and carried the jar to the pantry. He placed it on top of the storage rack and headed back to join the rest who started discussing how to surprise Eren when he came in and the order of their activities. Jean insisted on letting Eren sing the karaoke first to which Krista agreed without hesitation. On the other hand, Ymir kept accusing Jean of trying to ruin the party. It was pretty obvious that Jean wanted to take this chance to make fun of Eren.

Sasha suggested that they should just enjoy eating the treats while watching a good movie and having a nice chat. Connie deadpanned at her boring idea despite knowing that this was the type of 'parties' she, or rather, the both of them had grown up having. Then, Marco suggested that they should play a simple game after eating the birthday cake, but the game would be of Eren's choice. Karaoke could come after the game with Eren being the first to sing, much to Jean's excitement.

"You do know that Eren can sing well, right?" Connie asked Jean dully.

"Yeah, duh. That's why I'm trying to promote his talent," Jean proclaimed with a smug look.

Ymir rolled her eyes and muttered, "Bullshit."

Connie pointed at Ymir with a nod and said, "For once, I have to agree with you."

Ymir scoffed, "See, Jean? Even an idiot knows that karaoke isn't for birthday parties!"

"We karaoke all the time at birthday parties. What's wrong with that?" Jean questioned in annoyance.

"Hey, guys, let's respect each other, alright?" Armin interrupted them with an awkward look on his face while trying to think of a way to resolve the argument about having karaoke in the birthday party. "It seems that we have different ways of celebrating birthdays and all, but there's no right or wrong way either. Don't you think that it is interesting to integrate some birthday ideas from different cultures once in a while?"

"Armin is right! It will be fun!" Sasha exclaimed.

Jean shook his head in defeat and sighed, "Gosh, Armin... You don't have to go all multiculturalism on us. We have enough of that topic in lecture."

Armin nodded with a straight face and then pretended to mutter to himself as he looked down with a small frown, "Right. I guess this is the reason why Jean went on sleeping through the second half of the lecture with Eren."

"What?" Jean's jaw dropped as his cheeks reddened. "I didn't!"

Sasha and Connie stifled a laugh, feeling equally guilty for sleeping through that lecture too. It wasn't just that lecture though. Sasha usually dozed off during morning lectures, especially Professor Shadis' boring lectures on critical thinking and analysis. Despite that, she particularly liked Professor Shadis' tutorials because his classes were always interactive whereby everyone could move around the classroom for simple activities or group discussions. There was no way she could doze off when she was actively talking to others.

Just then, she heard quick footsteps outside, getting louder at each step. While her friends were busy talking, mainly teasing Jean for denying, Sasha shifted her attention to the door and held her breath to listen to the noise outside closely. She was very sure that their final visitors were arriving at their doorstep within the next few seconds.

"Guys, they're here now," Sasha said in a panicky voice as she gave everyone a heads up, capturing their attention.

"Grab the party popper!" Armin quickly instructed as he pointed at the colourful rods on the table.

The others took the party poppers as told and headed to the foyer. Then, the doorbell rang. As discussed earlier, way before they had started decorating the house, it was planned that Ymir would open the door and everyone would pop the party poppers at the same time. However, much to Sasha's surprise, Ymir didn't head to the door as planned. She was standing in the foyer with the party popper in her hand just like the rest of them whereas it was Armin who advanced forward and grabbed the door handle.

He turned around to face his friends and said in a whispering voice, "Don't pull the trigger until he steps in, okay?"

Upon seeing everyone nod, Armin turned back to the front and pushed down the handle. He opened the door a little and peeked at the expecting visitors through the tiny gap without saying anything to them.

"Armin?" They heard Eren's loud voice which sounded very appalled. "What are you doing here? I thought that your grandpa is ill..."

Armin opened the door slightly wider, but not wide enough for Eren and Mikasa to see what was waiting for them behind that door. With a small smile, the blonde greeted the Jaeger siblings, "Hi, Eren. Hey, Mikasa, I didn't know that Eren is coming along too."

Mikasa stared blankly at Armin for a moment before realising what he had meant with those words, and she quickly replied him, "Well, Eren insisted on coming."

"I didn't insist!" Eren rebutted as he turned to Mikasa with a frown. "I'm just worried, okay? And you were the one who told me to come."

Mikasa knitted her brows together too and said defensively "I didn't force you. You come here of your own accord."

"What? No," Eren denied and turned to look at Armin again. "Armin, can you let us in? I need to see her now."

"Sure. Oh, by the way, to tell you the truth, my grandpa isn't ill," Armin stated with a sheepish grin. "I lied to you. Sorry, Eren."

Eren's eyes widened in disbelief. "Wh-What?"

"Instead, I was doing this!"

Armin opened the door wide, reached out to Eren's wrist and pulled him into the house. Eren stumbled past the entrance, feeling lost at the moment till he heard multiple loud popping sounds that scared the wits out of him. He silently swore to himself as he felt his heart nearly leap out of his chest at the loud unexpected sounds. Then, he saw multiple butterfly-like objects fluttering down in the air and he immediately realised what was going on. Unfortunately, he was too stunned by what had just happened to even react. So, he just stared at the smiling individuals in the foyer with a shocked expression.

"Happy birthday, Eren!" everyone shouted.

While regaining his composure, his eyes fell on Sasha who was still holding up the empty party popper with both hands. The orange rod was in her left palm while her right hand was pincer-gripping on the string attached to the rod. She appeared fine to him, seeing her raising her left arm like that and beaming at him like nothing was wrong with her. Nevertheless, he took big steps towards her and grabbed her right wrist, earning a soft surprise gasp from her.

"What are you doing, Eren?" Sasha said in alarm as she instinctively pulled back her arm to free herself from his grasp.

However, Eren held her arm firmly and looked straight into her eyes, making her flush pink. It wasn't her first time that her hand was being held by him like that. It had happened once when they were stuck in mid-air on the chairlift ride. As the incident floated back to her mind, she felt herself going dizzy at the reminder that she and Eren had held each other's arms and she had even fallen on top of him with her face a few inches apart from his. Previously, she was too focused on bringing Eren back to safety and how to talk to him after thinking that she had made him angry, hence she did not pay attention to those physical contacts. Since she had remembered them as clear as day, her blush intensified as she exchanged gazes with him.

"Come here for a second," Eren instructed and pulled her further into the house, away from the crowd in the foyer.

Sasha was brought to the couch and was being pushed down to sit on it. Eren let go of her right wrist and gently lifted up her left arm instead. Before she knew what was happening, Eren pulled up her sleeve which was covering her whole arm and revealed the purple bruise slightly above her inner elbow. It was healing as it looked much smaller than before. Feeling extremely shocked that a male had just imprudently rolled up her sleeve without her consent, Sasha forcefully jerked her arm back again and successfully freed herself from Eren's grasp. She quickly pulled her sleeve down to hide her bruise and frowned at Eren.

"What do you think you are doing, pulling up people's sleeve like that?" she snapped at him.

Eren gave her a weak smile and muttered, "It isn't as big as the one from last Friday and you can move your arm. Thank goodness."

Sasha frowned harder at his words, having no idea what he had said. Of course, she could move her arm even if the bruise was as big as the week before. As she slowly relaxed her facial features, she realised that he had just mentioned 'last Friday', the day when her armguard was damaged and she got injured from shooting arrows. As far as she knew, the only people who had seen the bruise that day were her team captain, another club member, Levi, Krista and Ymir. Even if Mikasa had told Eren about her injury, he wouldn't have known about how 'big' it previously was.

Eren sat next to her and took out a black item from the plastic which he was carrying. She could immediately recognise the logo on the plastic bag and the item which he was holding. He pulled the price tag out, brought the nylon string which the tag was attached to towards his teeth, and bit it till it broke. After removing the price tag, he held it next to her left elbow and looked at her again.

"Try it on," he urged.

With a gulp, Sasha hesitantly straightened her left hand and slowly lifted it up, allowing Eren to wrap the thing around her upper arm. Seeing his fingers fumble with the straps as he tried to tighten it around her arm, she could tell that he was nervous and was trying not to pull the straps too hard.

"Hey, Eren. Did you know about it?" Sasha spoke again, but in a gentler voice this time.

"Know what?" he asked absentmindedly as he was still trying to fix the thing on her arm.

"I broke my armguard."

"Yeah, of course, I did. I saw..."

Suddenly, Eren stopped fixing the black armguard and looked up at her with a light blush on his cheeks. His defence mood was clearly up again.

"I didn't mean to watch you practice, Sasha. I happened to be there, that's all. Don't get the wrong idea!"

Sasha stared blankly at him and stated, "I didn't comment anything."

"This arm protector was... err... was on sale..." Eren looked away as his voice dropped. "I just bought it without thinking. I think you need it more."

Sasha did not remember seeing this armguard on sale. There was no sale when she had visited a few days ago, including the other weeks when she had gone window shopping. When did he buy this?

As he was looking away, she noticed that his ear was tinted red. For a moment, Sasha thought that he was probably feeling uneasy or embarrassed trying to help her to put on the armguard. So, she brought her right hand to one of the straps and started tightening it by herself. Eren quickly returned his attention to the armguard and started helping her with the straps too.

"I-I can m-manage it," he stuttered in a soft voice.

Sasha felt her mouth twitch in response, not knowing what to say to him. Or rather, she was surprised to see him stutter. He had always been so confident in the way he spoke to others. Furthermore, she should be the one who said that she could manage this by herself. However, she dropped her right hand to her lap and watched him tightening the straps for her. His fumbles gradually ceased as he successfully tightened two straps for her. His touch around her upper arm was gentle as if he was holding a fragile vase in his hands. It reminded her of something that had happened a long time ago. It was a very vague memory. She couldn't exactly remember it, but she felt that she had experienced the feeling of someone wrapping something around her injured arm.

 _"Sasha..."_

She shifted her gaze to his face. A sad feeling slowly ate her from inside, not knowing why she was feeling this way again.

 _"I'm sorry. I will come back later... Let him help you... I will be right back."_

Her gaze dropped to his fingers again. He was still fixing the straps and adjusting the guard for her. The way his fingers moved around the black armguard really reminded her of an incident that was slowly appearing in her mind. An incident which she could not make out of, strangely.

 _"You are so careless. I can't believe I have to do this for you. What a brat."_

A room with only two people. She was sitting on a stool and facing a person while he lowered his upper body to match her eye level as he wrapped something around her arm. His gentle fingers brushed against her skin as he tried to secure the thing with a tiny clip.

 _"Stop smiling like a dunce. I'm really angry now."_

Sasha couldn't help but smile at the familiar memory.

 _"To tell you the truth, there were times when I felt my heart waver because of you. But..."_

"Sasha, there you go. Hmm... I'm glad that it fits."

Sasha snapped out of her thoughts and glanced at Eren again before shifting her gaze back to the armguard that was already wrapped nicely around her upper arm. She lowered her arm, brought her arm closer to her chest, and brushed her fingers against the slightly rough texture of the armguard. A blush slowly made its way to her face again.

"Thank you, Eren." She looked up at him and beamed. "I like it. I will wear it for the tournament next week. Thank you so much."

"Uh..." Eren was tongue-tied as his face grew warmer at each passing second upon seeing her smile. He inhaled deeply and held his breath, trying to calm his racing heart down. His fingers were still tingling with heat after helping her put on the armguard and he thought that it was wrong of him to feel so 'nervously excited' after touching a girl's arm. Earlier, he was so focused on helping Sasha put on the armguard that he didn't realise that he was sitting so close to her, not to mention holding onto her arm as soon as he had stepped into the house.

At this moment as he finally realised what he had done, Eren avoided Sasha's gaze in a bashful manner and turned his head towards his right. That was when he also realised that his 'kind' deed was witnessed by six other pairs of eyes. The air that was trapped within him immediately gushed out of his lungs, feeling dread all of a sudden.

"I can't believe the two of them have totally forgotten about us," Jean murmured with a small smirk plastered on his face.

Ymir snorted and remarked in a loud voice, "Is it just me or the atmosphere there seems grossly cheesy?"

Upon hearing Ymir's words, Sasha turned to look at Ymir with wide innocent eyes and asked, "Do you just say cheese? We didn't buy any cheesy stuff, did we?"

"No, Sasha. No cheese. And not that kind of cheese," Connie deadpanned.

Before Sasha could ask Connie what he meant, Mikasa spoke up with a small frown on her face, "Eren, your liar."

Eren frowned back at her. "What are you talking about, Mikasa?"

"The arm protector wasn't on sale at all. And... you skipped your duty to watch her practice."

"No, I didn't!" Eren retorted and glanced back at Sasha who was staring at him in puzzlement.

"You made me and Mikasa clean up the whole classroom. Rico hasn't found out that you skipped your duty yet," Armin added, looking a little crossed.

Eren stood up and faced his friends again, feeling embarrassed by the accusation. He wouldn't say that he wasn't watching her practice, but he didn't purposely skip his duty either. It was true that he was just passing by the stadium with his cleaning equipment and he had seen Sasha practice inside. He did not have a chance to watch her practice archery before despite seeing her carry her bow around in school at times. Her training sessions were usually held on weekday nights and sometimes, Sunday. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be in school during those times.

He did not know what had gotten to him that day as he entered the stadium and climbed up the stairs to the second level where all the elevated seats were. He quietly stood near the exit door with a mop in front of him, hiding his lower face behind the mophead. Then, he watched her shooting arrows with the most intense concentration he had ever seen on Sasha's face. It had reminded him of those useless pictures he was trying to draw for days.

He was so engrossed in watching her practice that he did not notice that ten minutes had almost passed until he heard a sharp hiss coming from her. She had dropped her bow and crouched forward as she rubbed her upper forearm in pain. Eren instinctively ran to the railings and leaned forward, wanting to ask what happened to her. But a male, whom Eren had no idea where he had come from, ran towards her instead and started reprimanding her for not wearing an armguard. Sasha had later explained to the taller male that her armguard was broken.

As she made her way to the side of the stadium with that male, towards the direction where Eren was at, he could clearly see a few deep red lines on her arm. The skin around the lines appeared reddish too and Eren could tell that she was hit multiple times since before he had arrived. Perhaps she had noticed someone's presence above her as he noticed Sasha's gaze shift upwards. Not wanting her to know that he was watching her, he quickly covered his face with the mophead and ran towards the exit door.

A few days later, as Mikasa was insisting him to leave his bedroom, Eren decided to visit a sports shop where archery items were sold. He didn't know much about armguards so he had asked the shop assistant to help him choose a good armguard for him. As usual, Mikasa would tag along and gave him her second opinion about the type of armguard which she thought Sasha would like. He had wanted to give the armguard to Sasha as soon as possible but he couldn't bring himself to do it, or rather, he did not know how to approach her with his gift. Finally, he could pass it to her because of Mikasa and he was inwardly thankful for that.

"You know what, Armin. I think I know what you did," Jean suddenly spoke again with a smirk tugging his lips.

Armin turned to look at Jean with raised eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I like your idea," Jean hinted to Armin in a softer voice but his words didn't go unheard by Eren.

With his eyes darting back and forth at Armin and Jean, Eren immediately asked them with a small frown, "What idea?"

"Uhh..." Armin glanced at Mikasa with an uncertain look, not sure if he should tell Eren that the two of them had made use of Sasha's name to trick him into coming to the girl's dormitory. Sasha would certainly not be happy either if she knew about it. She would definitely say that they should have informed her beforehand if they were going to use her as a bait.

"You can say that it is an idea for your surprise party," Krista's voice was heard next to Armin. She smiled at Eren and continued, "Armin really put in a lot of effort and considerations in planning this whole party to surprise you. This is what Jean is trying to say. Am I right, Jean?"

Jean cracked an awkward smile and nodded. Eren glanced at his friends at the foyer and then to Sasha who was still sitting on the couch. He was starting to understand the situation a little. Since Armin had admitted that he had lied to him about his grandpa's illness, he was all along at the girl's dormitory with the others preparing a surprise birthday party for him.

Eren was inwardly relieved. He wasn't sure if he was actually feeling relief because his dear friend hadn't forgotten his birthday or because of another reason which he did not dare to admit to himself. He looked away from Sasha nonchalantly and turned his back towards the foyer as he faced the large array of goodies and the chocolate cake on the table in front of him. He really liked the decorations and the large banner on the wall. He could tell that the banner was hand-made by them, judging from the messy small splatters of paint on the white paper.

"Thank you, guys. It was really a surprise," Eren said as he looked at his friends again with a wide grin. "But isn't it a bit strange that the hosts are being a little too awkward?"

Ymir chuckled and joked, "Who do you think started the awkwardness?"

"Obviously Sasha. If not, who else?" Mikasa stated with a straight face.

Feeling a little shocked that she had just been accused of making the party awkward, Sasha jumped on her feet and looked exasperatedly at her black-haired friend. "What did I do, Mikasa?"

"For being Sasha."

Sasha crooked an eyebrow quizzically, not knowing what to rebut her because she had no idea what she was talking about. Sensing that the awkwardness was beginning to cease thanks to Ymir and Mikasa, the people in the foyer came to table and started the birthday celebration with the birthday song.

* * *

 **My first update in 2018! Thank you for reading this chapter!**

 **\- You can ignore my little off-topic talk below and jump straight to the preview :) -**

 **Recently (more like as part of my new year resolution *lol*), I attempted to draw comics using a digital art app. It is really difficult to draw digitally (maybe because I am so used to draw using pencil and paper) and I took a long time to complete a page! Oh boy. I won't complain next time if a manga takes a month to update even if the suspense is killing my brain cells (like Shingeki no Kyojin manga). If I'm ready with a chapter, I would like to post it. One day, maybe (TT v TT)**

 **Okay, back to this story. I would like to thank** _aisasha_ **and** _ALE686_ **for reviewing the previous chapter, and also those who have favourited and followed this story!**

 **Preview of Chapter 12:**

 _"Quit those past lives chat. Horse-faced, answer that question now," Eren demanded and narrowed his eyes at Jean._

 _Jean's eyes widened for a brief moment before a deep crease formed between his eyebrows. "Are you trying pick a fight with me too?"_

 _Eren ignored his question and asked again, "Who did you call beautiful, huh?"_

 **Never tick Eren off, Jean. Who is that girl whom you called beautiful? Just don't say that girl is Sasha, okay? :)**

 **See you again in Chapter 12! It will be slightly longer with some flashbacks, angsty Eren, and... yes, someone is going to prank Levi. It's time to set his mind reeling with _the three words_.**

Did I hear someone say _'I miss you'?_


	12. Chapter 12

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **12**

"Hange!"

He burst into his superior's office with a woman out cold in his arm, panting heavily as he called out his superior in desperation. The woman was bleeding profusely from her head and chest, and she looked insanely pale. From the looks of it, it was obvious that the woman needed immediate medical attention.

"I will explain later. But please save her."

"I definitely will. Please lay her on the bed first."

He had lost so many things in his life and she was the only one who was still alive by his side. He wished that time could reverse and perhaps be nicer to those who had left him. And perhaps open himself up to her and tell her everything. If only he could understand what was going on in the woman's mind on their way back to their home, he could have stopped her from going all out on their enemies. She had suddenly changed from when he had last seen her before he left. Furthermore, he had no idea how and why in the world did she follow him to the most dangerous place when she should be safe at her little clinic supervising her subordinates. He was the one who placed her there so she wouldn't have to fight, scout, and be hurt.

Why...

Why out of all people did he have to feel so attached to her? It only made him feel more burdened by those feelings that should not exist in the first place.

She was so annoying. She had the goofiest grin among the female soldiers. She had a monstrous appetite. Her bed was messy. She didn't like doing cleaning and kept procrastinating her chores.

Yet, he couldn't stop himself from looking forward to seeing her smile at him whenever he stepped into her little clinic. He was the one who placed her there to protect her. But in the end, it seemed that it had hurt her instead...

 _"Why are you here in Marley?! Shouldn't you be with Hange?"_

 _"I... I followed you guys here and... got lost... Then, I met him... He saved me."_

... because she was never meant to be caged.

-:-:-:-

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Sasha Braus. What's yours?"

"Jean Kirstein."

Sasha reached out to the boy's extended hand and gave it a light shake. He looked particularly disinterested in pairing up with her, but it wasn't like she wanted to pair up with him either. She did not mind making new friends since she was in a new environment, but the vibe that Jean was giving wasn't as welcoming as she had hoped. Her eyes scanned the crowd, hoping to find Connie among the other freshmen. She wondered who he was paired up with in this food-race game.

"Sasha, right?" she heard Jean speak from behind.

She quickly turned to look at him and responded, "Yes?"

"One of us will have to piggyback another one of us to the end." Jean pointed at a long table filled with groceries at the other end of the running track. "You have heard the rules, haven't you?"

Sasha nodded. Of course, she did. Pairs from each team were randomly formed through a lucky draw, and each pair had to select a food item from that table and bring it back to the team for the inter-team cooking contest after the game. But before that, each pair had to race to the table which was located fifty metres away from the starting point. The faster pairs would have more food variety to choose from. The rules were very simple, except for the piggyback part. To Sasha, it was the most uncomfortable thing to do, especially when the guy was someone she had just met.

"I... I run very fast," Sasha blurted with a small blush on her cheeks as her mind reeled in anxiety.

"So?" Jean rose an eyebrow for a moment before giving her a weird look. "Don't tell me you want to piggyback me."

Sasha shook her head and said in embarrassment, "No! This is not what I meant!"

Jean scoffed, "I don't want to carry you, okay. But we have no choice. I don't want to be piggybacked by you either. You look like you couldn't even lift yourself, much less a guy like me."

Sasha looked down to hide her burning cheeks. She could not believe that out of all people, she was paired with a mean person. She could do three pull-ups, if pull-ups were considered as lifting herself, and was proud of the fact she was the only girl in her high school who could do that many. Connie could do four pull-ups but it wasn't the best score in school, unfortunately. However, what Jean had said was quite true although she was too stubborn to admit and agree with him. In terms of physical differences, Jean could carry her easily as she weighed lighter (she hoped) while she would have difficulty carrying Jean while running.

While the two of them made their way to the starting point along with the others, Jean suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at something or someone ahead of him. Sasha also halted and looked at him in puzzlement, wondering why he had stopped walking. Following his gaze, she saw a messy crowd of students near the starting line. The students seemed to be unsure of where they should stand along the starting line. From what she had heard from the seniors, they could stand anywhere they liked as long as they wouldn't cross one another's path. Thinking that Jean was also unsure about their starting positions, Sasha decided to suggest to him that they could stand near the least crowded area.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to tell him, she heard Jean mutter to himself softly, "Wow... She's beautiful."

Sasha bit her lips and tried to follow his gaze again. He was still looking at the crowd of students and she had no idea who he was referring to. Most girls she saw in the crowd were pretty, way prettier than her for sure. They had nice makeup, cool clothes, nice legs, nice hair, fair skin, and many other physical characteristics which Sasha deemed as pretty. Unlike those girls, Sasha was wearing a pair of dark blue track pants and a basic black tee with her hair tied up messily in a ponytail. Her face was bare, except for beads of perspiration trickling down her forehead due to the heat from the sun.

She turned to Jean again and asked, "Who are you referring to?"

"Huh?" Jean sounded annoyed as he turned to face her. "None of your business."

"Oh, come on! I'm curious," Sasha urged him with a playful nudge on his arm.

However, Jean seemed to take her nudge as an offence and quickly back away from her with a frown. "Definitely not you, girl!"

Sasha's jaw dropped in disbelief. "I didn't say anything about myself, young man!"

"Right," Jean said in a sarcastic tone and started walking towards the starting line again.

Sasha rolled her eyes and followed him behind. After choosing where they wanted to stand, the pair waited for everyone to get ready in their positions. Standing next to them was another pair - a beautiful girl with blonde hair and deep blue eyes, and a good-looking boy with toned muscles and tanned skin. The girl was almost three heads shorter than her partner. Seeing that her partner was a fit person, Sasha was inwardly worrying that Jean, which she thought was skinny and had 'no-muscle', would lose to that person. From far, she had already seen what food was on the table and she clearly knew what she wanted. Potato. She liked potatoes because she could make all sorts of interesting dishes with potatoes. She wasn't going to lose that brown potato to anyone else! So, she had to come in first.

"Jean!"

"What?" Jean snapped at her, looking annoyed again.

"You have to run fast, okay? We have to reach there first to get the best food," Sasha instructed.

Jean snorted, "Duh, of course. Provided if you aren't heavy."

"I'm not heavy!"

"Okay," Jean said dully as he turned his back towards her.

Feeling irritated by his somewhat mean attitude, Sasha puffed up her cheeks angrily and crossed her arms. They did not speak to each other until it was time for the race to start. Jean lowered his body, letting Sasha wrap her arms around his neck from behind. Then, Jean lifted her up from the ground effortlessly and held her legs at his sides. While on his back, Sasha felt extremely self-conscious. She was afraid that she was indeed very heavy; she was worried that her perspiration would disgust the boy; she wondered if she smelt so bad after the previous activities under the sun; so on and so forth. She had never been so close to a boy other than Connie, and her proximity to Jean made her head go dizzy with anxiety.

Just then, a loud whistle was heard and everyone started running on the track, piggybacking their partners. Jean was surprisingly fast. He zoomed past the blonde girl and her fit partner, slowly catching up with the few others at the front, and finally overtook them. However, there was a pair of students who was far ahead of them and what surprised her the most wasn't how fast they were. But rather, she was amazed by the runner. The one who was running was a black-haired girl while the one whom she was piggybacking was a male who looked taller and heavier than her. As most male students chose to piggyback the female students, it was interesting to see something different from usual, not to mention that the black-haired girl was running faster than the males on the track.

In the end, that weird pair came in first and chose a small bag of medium-sized shrimps before making to the side of the track to wait for their other team members. Meanwhile, Jean and Sasha arrived second and that was when their heated argument over food started.

"Potato!"

"No, eggs!"

"What the...! Why eggs? Potato is more worth it! We can make so many things with a potato!" Sasha argued as she pointed at the large brown potato in a transparent plastic zip-lock bag.

Jean pointed at two eggs on a paper tray and snorted loudly. "You don't seem to understand the wonders of eggs, Sasha. You can make more things with an egg!"

"With an egg, the only thing you can make is still egg. Hard boiled egg, steamed egg, fried egg-"

"Omelette. I'm going to be an omelette with two eggs," Jean interrupted her. "Don't underestimate my family's secret recipe, Potato-girl!"

Sasha widened her eyes in alarm upon hearing the awful nickname he had given her. "What?!" _Potato-girl? What the hell was that?!_

Suddenly, Sasha felt a light push from behind and she immediately turned around in response. A female freshman was smiling sheepishly at Sasha as her hand travelled towards the glorious brown potato.

"I'm sorry. My partner and I will be taking this," the female freshman said awkwardly.

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head pleadingly. There was no way she would give away her potato! She had her eyes on it first!

She cried, "No, wait!"

"Sorry!" the other girl said as she grabbed the potato and quickly ran away with her partner behind her.

Before she could even lament over her loss, she noticed more people gathering at the table and more food was taken away. She had to act fast before all the good food were taken! She turned to face Jean again, wanting to tell him to just take the eggs and faster leave the table. However, she saw her partner looking stunned and defeated back at her.

"The eggs..." he muttered in a raspy voice before letting out a loud groan in frustration.

Sasha glanced at the spot where she thought the tray of eggs was supposed to be. But the tray of eggs was nowhere to found and this obviously meant one thing; the eggs were taken. Sasha's eyes scanned the table and immediately fell on another food item - carrots.

She turned to Jean and asked him in a rapid staccato, "We are getting baby carrots. Is that okay?"

"Just take it! Damn it!" Jean was beginning to panic as the food items on the table were getting fewer at each second.

Sasha pushed her way through the crowd and tried to reach for the bag of baby carrots. Again, luck wasn't at her side. The bag was taken away by a student and before she knew it, the table was left with two items - a pickle and a beetroot.

"Sasha, take the beetroot!" she heard Jean yell at her.

Yes, that was what she thought so too. Beetroot was one of the most expensive vegetables back in her village so obviously, she would get that rather than a pickle. In this panicky situation, Sasha did not even bother to think about what she could do with the beetroot. Jean was no different either. Anyway, since the beetroot was close to her, she could not lose this precious vegetable to others. If she did, she would be...

An arm suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking her path. In response, she pushed the arm away and reached out to grab that beetroot. But the person who had blocked her earlier was even faster than her. He moved past her and swiftly took the beetroot. Sasha's hands fell on the table and she glanced at the male student who had taken her second option away. The male student and his partner quickly made their way to join the others at the side of the track, leaving Jean and Sasha alone at the table.

 _... a disgrace._

Sasha hiccupped. She covered her mouth in embarrassment and shifted her gaze to Jean who was holding up the pickle with a moody look on his face.

"Well, this is what left for us," her partner murmured in a monotone. "Thanks so much, Potato-girl."

Sasha glared at Jean as she hiccupped again. It wasn't entirely her fault that they both ended up having a pickle instead. If one of them had just given in, they wouldn't end up this way. It was extremely embarrassing that they had gone from second place to the last. Furthermore, many eyes were on them, causing her to become flustered upon the realisation that she had made a fool out of herself on the first day of school. While she was inwardly panicking, Jean shoved the pickle to her and walked away nonchalantly. At this moment, Sasha was extremely annoyed by Jean's behaviour. He was not only mean, but also very rude to her. Wrapping her hand tightly around the pickle, she stomped after him and caught up with him within seconds.

"Thank you so much too, Horse-faced," she snorted loudly and stuck out her tongue at him in a mocking manner before taking to her heels towards the crowd at the side of the track, trying to hide from Jean.

"What the...! Get back here, you weird potato!"

Sasha ran to her team and placed the pickle next to the other food, which the other pairs had collected for their team, on a small picnic cloth. She scanned the food quickly and spotted the tray of eggs among the food collected on the cloth. Well, it seemed that her team had fulfilled Jean's wish. Her potato was obviously in the hands of another team, seeing that she could spot the potato on the other team's cloth. She turned around and saw Jean running towards her with an angry look on his face. No doubt that he was mad at the nickname she had given him out of the blue. Sasha turned to her teammates and lied to them that she had to go to the washroom urgently. In fact, she had no idea where the washroom was but she had to get away from Jean fast. Without further ado, she sprinted out of the outdoor stadium and ignored her seniors' voices shouting at her, asking where she was going and telling her to stop.

She kept running and running, not knowing where she had headed to. All she knew that she had entered another building that was next to the stadium. Upon seeing that she wasn't chased by anyone else, she slowed down and stopped to take a breather along the hallway. Panting heavily, she leaned against the wall and looked around her to see where she was. She saw many doors lined up along the hallway and the door closest to her had a plastic sign hung next to it. It was written 'Ladies'.

Great! A restroom. She could take a rest in there and clean up herself. She could already imagine herself looking untidy with her ponytail loosen and her fringes sticking on the side of her face. While loosening her hair tie and letting her long brown hair drop to her mid-chest, she quickly pushed open the door of the restroom and took a step inside. As if on cue, a soft startled voice was heard from behind the door.

Startled as well, Sasha held the door in place and stilled as she exchanged gaze with someone in front of her, whose body and face were partially covered by the door. It seemed that the other girl had wanted to pull open the door to leave the restroom, but Sasha was the one who had scared her when she suddenly pushed the door open. She felt lucky that she didn't accidentally hit the girl; this type of unfortunate accident occasionally happened to her as she would be the one who would be hit by the edge of the door when it was unexpectedly opened by someone else from the other side.

"S-Sorry, I didn't know that you are behind the door," Sasha immediately apologised to the girl.

The girl shook her head and pulled the door wide, revealing her full features. She was taller than Sasha, very fair, and had long silky black hair. She had a red scarf wrapped around her neck, and Sasha didn't get why anyone would wear a thick scarf on a hot sunny day like this while here she was _dying_ from the heat and looking like a mess created from the hellfire. Sasha quickly stepped aside to let the girl pass, but the girl continued to hold on the door and stare at her without moving an inch. Sasha could see her forehead crease a little as her grey eyes seemed to study Sasha's features. Feeling awkward at the thought that the girl was probably judging her by her messy mane and sweaty face, Sasha stretched out her arm to signal the girl to move forward.

"You go first," she said with a forced smile.

"Okay," came a soft reply.

The girl opened the door a little wider and stepped out of the restroom. Sasha placed her hand against the closing door and pushed it open again so she could enter. But the girl's voice interrupted her.

"Are you new here?"

"Eh?" Sasha halted and turned to the girl with a blank look. "Uh... yeah."

The girl lowered her gaze and muttered softly, "Oh, I see."

"Why did you ask?" Sasha queried.

"Nothing..." The girl paused as she glanced at Sasha again, giving her a small smile which looked a little sad but relieved at the same time. "I'm sorry... But it's nice to see you again."

 _Huh?_

The girl immediately turned around and tugged her scarf upwards to hide her lower face from Sasha. As the girl walked away towards the entrance of the building where Sasha had come in from earlier, Sasha rose an eyebrow at her diminishing silhouette and then shrugged. That girl had probably mistaken her for someone else. But wasn't it strange to ask if she was new in this school when that girl had 'seen' her before? Or maybe not. When she was about to turn and enter the restroom, she saw someone run past the black-haired girl and called out her name in a loud voice.

"Sasha!"

 _Connie?_ Sasha could recognise her best friend's voice so she waved at the approaching figure. As he approached her, he gradually slowed down and stopped right in front of her. Connie bent his body forward a little, trying to catch his breath after the run. When Sasha was about to speak to Connie, she noticed the black-haired girl was looking at their way from the entrance of the building. However, the girl quickly turned around and hurriedly walked out of the building as soon as Sasha returned her a puzzled stare. Thinking that the girl did not concern her in any way, Sasha shifted her attention back to her friend who was slowly regaining his composure.

"What are you doing here?"

Connie narrowed his eyes at her and started chiding, "I should be asking you that too! You just ran off like that! And there was this crazy boy making a huge fuss about you calling him Horse-faced when I think he really has that horse-looking face. Oh well, never mind that."

Connie waved his words away and lowered his voice as he continued, "But anyway, I managed to secretly trade my lemon with the potato from another team."

Sasha looked wide-eyed at Connie, feeling a little shocked.

Connie looked away from Sasha and added awkwardly, "Since you wanted the potato, we can exchange."

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows upon hearing that. Did Connie just trade his food with someone else so that she could have the potato? It wasn't that trading was bad. It just surprised her as to why he had traded his team's food with a potato for her when he was not on her team. It was only a small potato which, in fact, didn't really make much of a difference in her team's cooking. Not like her pickle would make a useless dish anyway.

"No, Connie," Sasha spoke in a firm voice and shook her head to show her disapproval. "I can't do that. You are on another team."

Connie glanced back at her. "As long as no one knows, it's okay, right?"

"No, I still can't do that. You can have the potato."

"I don't want the potato, Sasha." Connie frowned at her. "I can have the pickle."

Sasha sighed. "Look, Connie. Even if we exchanged, others are going to find out. Horse-faced and I created a scene out there and I bet most people know we got a pickle, not the potato. Besides, we got the eggs which Horse-faced wanted."

Her friend's brows rose as if he realised something that she had said. Sighing away, he rubbed the back of his neck and muttered, "You're right. Why didn't I think about it?"

"Anyway, thank you." Sasha smiled and gently nudged his upper arm. "Thank you for thinking about me."

"Uh, no problem," Connie said and returned her a forced smile. "Let's go back, shall we? Or..."

His eyes travelled to the restroom sign and then he immediately realised that Sasha was actually planning to use the restroom. Not only that, he was standing right outside of the females' restroom which no doubt making him feel more awkward than he should be at this moment. When he returned his gaze back to Sasha, he saw her using her fingers to comb her hair and then tying up her hair in a messy ponytail. After she was done making sure that her fringes were swept to the sides of her face, she glanced at Connie with a beam and casually pointed towards the entrance of the building.

"Please lead me the way to the field, friend. I have forgotten where I have come from," Sasha said with a sheepish laugh.

Connie shot her a weird look before commenting aloud, "I can't believe you. You just want somebody to accompany you back, am I right?"

"What are you talking about? I'm really lost!"

"Yeah, right," Connie mumbled, sounding unconvinced. Upon seeing her frown at his dull response, he cracked a smile at his taller friend and signalled her to follow him. "We aren't very far from the field though. Let's go, Sasha."

Sasha nodded and skipped to Connie's side, and the both of them headed back to the field where the other freshmen were. Connie and Sasha parted ways as they sat with their own teams. Much to the brunette's relief as soon as she was seated on the grass patch with her teammates, she saw that Jean was nowhere to be found. As she did not care about him, or more like she was momentarily happy that she did not have to face him for awhile, she did not bother to ask anyone about him. Instead, she turned to a girl sitting next to her and asked her if she knew when they could start the cooking contest. Unfortunately, the girl shrugged and replied that she did not know when.

"The seniors said that the cooking laboratories are currently in use. We have to wait," the girl added. "It was unexpected though. The seniors booked the laboratories first but apparently, the science faculty people used them for their orientation activities too."

Sasha nodded understandingly. "No choice then. We have to wait."

"Hey, let's play a game while we wait. How about that?" a teammate suggested to everyone in the team.

"Yes!" the girl next to Sasha responded with enthusiasm. "What kind of game?"

Another teammate rolled his eyes and groaned, "No more icebreaker games, please. I'm bored."

"Erm..." A boy with short blonde hair raised his hand timidly as his ocean blue eyes scanned the faces of his teammates whose attention was brought to him. "H-How about this quick simple game... Truth or Dare?"

-:-:-:-

"Truth or Dare."

As soon as Eren had suggested the game he wanted to play, he felt himself receiving bored stares and comments about how overrated that game was. How was this overrated? It was true that it was a common and popular game. However, the last time he had played this game was during his freshman orientation when one team had decided to play Truth or Dare and the other teams had decided to follow as well. Since then, he hadn't played this game in awhile, much less seeing others playing it. It was a fun game after all, especially seeing people doing silly dares and making a fool out of themselves.

He frowned at his friends and repeated, "I want to play Truth or Dare."

"Geez, Eren! Can't you choose something more unique?" Jean responded with a loud snort. "Truth or Dare is for little kids."

"Since you guys wanted me to choose a game, I choose that. What's wrong with it? Even big kids play Truth or Dare," Eren retorted.

Ymir smirked and chipped in, "Oh, big kids. I like that."

"I haven't played this game for a long time. Sounds good to me," Marco said with a smile.

Eren nodded, agreeing with Marco. Then, he glanced at the others, waiting for their reply.

Unfortunately, Connie shook his head and commented, "I agree with Jean. It's a little boring, don't you think so?"

"Boring?" Narrowing his dark green eyes at his friend, Eren continued to ask irritably, "Then, what do you suggest, Connie?"

"A twist."

"Huh?"

Connie's eyes flickered, showing a glint of mischief as he suggested, "Let's have one more rule to this game to make it more... fun. How about that?"

"Like?"

"You know that I brought some beer, right?"

Eren nodded hesitantly. For some reason, he was starting to feel that whatever Connie was going to say would be a bad idea. In fact, the word 'fun' was the forewarning to the new rule.

"So, here's the twist." Connie raised his hand to his shoulder level and pointed a finger upward. "Each one of us will receive three cups of beer filled to the brim. For any truth or dare which you don't want to answer or carry out, you can drink a cup of beer. You can only drink it thrice, so that means you only have three chances of escape."

"Hey, aren't three cups a bit too much? Let's keep this R-13, okay?" Jean interjected.

"I thought Connie's beer has low alcohol content. So, it should be fine, right?" Sasha spoke as she looked at Connie. "Besides, we can use the disposable cups that we bought. The cups aren't really big either. So, I guess three cups of beer won't make us drunk or knock us out."

"Honestly, I think Connie's idea is good. A twist is more interesting!" Krista said enthusiastically.

Eren furrowed his brows as he thought hard about the suggestion. Actually, it didn't really sound too bad to him. However, if the alcohol was going to be implemented, would that mean that the questions and dare requests would be more 'intrusive' than the original game? But the 'intrusiveness' was what made the game funny and thrilling. With this reasoning, Eren decided to go ahead with this new rule for the game he had suggested.

Just then, Mikasa spoke up, "Guys, let's keep our dares simple, okay? No sexual innuendos, please."

Sasha chuckled and agreed with Mikasa, "Right, guys, no sexual questions and dares."

In a few minutes, the beer was poured out in many cups and each person was served with three cups of beer. Then, they sat in a circle with an empty plastic disposable bottle in the centre. Since Eren was the birthday boy, he was told to spin the bottle first and so he did. The blue cap of the bottle pointed at Armin who just at the opposite of him.

With a wide devious grin, Eren asked, "Truth or dare, Armin?"

"Why do I get this feeling that both options are bad choices?" Armin muttered as he rubbed his chin sceptically. "Hmm... Truth?"

"Okay. Do you enjoy Professor Shadis' lecture?"

Armin forced a smile at his friend and said, "You have just asked a controversial question."

Connie laughed. "Geez! Just answer it, Armin!"

Dropping his smile, Armin cleared his throat and replied in a soft low voice, "Yes, I do. More so if he stopped clamping people's head in the middle of the lecture."

Laughter erupted the common room right after Armin answered the question with a cold joke. Armin pursed his lips tightly as he tried to stifle a laugh. Without further ado, Armin took the bottle and gave it a quick spin. The cap pointed at Marco.

"So, Marco, truth or dare?"

The boy smiled and calmly answered, "Dare."

Connie clapped his hands and cheered, "Woohoo, our first dare!"

"I dare you to..." Armin paused and thought hard. "Err... take a peek into Ymir's room and tell us one interesting thing you see without saying a word."

"What the... My room is in a mess. There's nothing interesting to see, I swear!" Ymir quickly admitted as she sent a glare towards Armin and Marco.

Mikasa glanced at Ymir from the corner of her eyes and muttered dully, "Well, a peak won't hurt. Not like you are keeping something suspicious, right?"

Ymir briefly returned Mikasa a glance before letting out a loud grunt, "Fine. Go ahead."

Feeling extremely terrible for invading into Ymir's private space, Marco apologised to the displeased girl and then headed towards Ymir's room. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open. His eyes scanned the room quickly and he closed the door as soon as he caught on something interesting in Ymir's room. He hurriedly returned back to the circle and sat down with his friends.

"Well?" Armin prompted him.

Marco held up both hands and pretended to hold something as he curved his palms inwards and moved his fingers rapidly like he was plucking the guitar strings.

"Guitar?" Sasha asked.

Marco shook his head and began strumming the imaginary guitar with a cringed face.

Eren guessed, "A rock band?"

"Ah, I know! Rustie Boyz!" Krista immediately said, earning a nod from Marco. "Ymir is secretly a huge fan of Rustie Boyz."

Ymir's eyes widened and she quickly interjected, "It was supposed to be a secret, Krista!"

Raising an eyebrow, Krista gave her friend a small smirk and said, "But now that everyone knows that you have a poster of that band in your room. It's no longer a secret, right?"

Right after she had said that, Jean and Connie let out a snort as they tried to stifle a laugh. Turning her head towards the boys' direction, Ymir glared at them.

"What's so funny? I just like their music, okay? Besides, I got that poster for free. Might as well just hang it on the wall."

"I didn't know Ymir likes rock music. Rustie Boyz are known for their death metal," Connie commented in a teasing tone.

"Imagine Ymir dance and rock to the nonsensical screaming," Jean laughed.

"I don't dance or rock, mind you!" Ymir raised her voice angrily as she shook her fist at Jean.

While the others were still focused on Ymir and her favourite boy band, Marco spun the bottle and it pointed at Krista. Noticing the bottle pointing at her way, Krista clasped her hands together with a bright smile and chose 'Truth'.

"Krista, what is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done?"

This time, everyone's focus shifted to Krista and they waited for her answer in anticipation. Krista let out a soft 'hmm' as she gazed upwards, looking a little uncomfortable. Then, she looked at Marco with an awkward laugh and shrugged.

"I guess I shall skip this one." Krista picked up a cup of beer in front of her and held it up. "Cheers, people."

"What? No way! Now that you make it so secretive, I'm dying to know what you have done!" Connie exclaimed loudly.

Jean narrowed his eyes at Connie and said, "I'm starting to hate this new rule. Can we remove it?"

"I'm sorry. Too late. I don't really want to talk about it either," Krista apologised and then raised the cup to sip, letting a bittersweet taste slip into her mouth and feeling a mild burning sensation on her tongue and throat.

After finishing the beer, Krista took the bottle and gave it a spin. This time, it was Sasha's turn.

"Truth or dare, Sasha?"

"Truth!"

Krista leant forward a little and said, "You have to be very honest with me, okay?"

Sasha frowned. Of course, she would be honest. Or else, why would choose 'Truth' if she was already planning to tell a lie.

"Have you ever had a crush on someone?"

Oh, a 'simple' close question. If she said no, it was obvious that she was lying. Not that she could lie either because of the rule of this game. She would usually say 'no' to this question back when she was in high school but no one had ever believed her because they believed that no matter how crazily in love she was with food, surely she had had at least one crush in her lifetime. A good thing about close question, she didn't have to tell anyone who she had crushed on. So, it would be a safe 'yes'.

Sasha took in a deep breath and answered firmly, "Not lying. So, yes."

Krista gasped and her blue eyes appeared to brighten under the fluorescence light above them. She covered her mouth, looking excited upon hearing Sasha's answer as she glanced at Ymir who did not seem to be as surprised as Krista was.

The blonde quickly looked at Sasha again and continued, "May I ask who?"

"No." Sasha shook her head. "That would be two questions."

"Awww!"

Sasha chuckled as she spun the bottle. As soon as she saw the bottle cap pointed towards Jean, the brunette smirked.

"Jean-boy, truth or dare?"

Jean narrowed his eyes at her and bellowed, "I will kill you."

"Come on, choose one," Sasha prompted him while ignoring his death glare.

"Truth. I'm not going to risk my dare with you, Potato-girl."

"Aww, that's so sad. But that's okay. Here's the question. Who were you referring to when you said that she was beautiful on the first day of our freshmen orientation?"

Jean crooked an eyebrow quizzically and mumbled to himself, "Did I say that? When?"

"Just before the food race started," Sasha said. "You were quite enamoured by someone in front of you. So, who was she... or he?"

Jean blushed and shouted, "Definitely a she!"

"Who then?"

"Like hell I'd remember who! That was like a year ago! Besides, I don't remember saying it!"

Unconvinced, Sasha frowned at Jean and challenged, "But you can remember that I wanted a potato."

"That's because your face reminds me of the humiliation I faced on that day!"

"What?!"

Sasha and Jean stared daggers at each other. Almost immediately, Sasha felt a light pull on her ponytail, causing her head to tilt upwards a little. Not knowing who had done that, Sasha let her hand travel up to the person's hand which was pulling her hair and forcefully pulled the hand away from her head. Once her hair was freed, she quickly turned her head to the side where the hand had come from. The hand belonged to Ymir, who was a seat away from her with Armin between them. Another frown settled on Sasha's forehead as she faced Ymir.

"Sorry, Sasha. Someone just needs to stop you and Jean from fighting all the damn time. It's super annoying," Ymir grunted and withdrew her arm to her side. "Seriously, you two were arguing about food earlier. And now, trying to pick a fight about food again? Were you two enemies in your past lives or something?"

"Definitely," Jean agreed with a nod.

Sasha rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Probably enemies in food wars. We probably had food battles every now and then, and I would win-"

"As if you could win when you cannot even understand the wonders of an egg," Jean interjected with a sarcastic laugh.

"What if..." Mikasa spoke up and paused for a moment. Her eyes travelled to Sasha before continuing, "... you and Jean were good friends in your past lives?"

Thinking that Mikasa was being sarcastic by saying that, Sasha chuckled and simply brushed her words aside. As if Jean and Sasha were _once_ _good_ friends. Even if they were, they were likely friends who had a love-hate relationship, like they were in this lifetime. Anyway, she doubted that past lives even existed in the first place; she had never once thought about the possibility of having a life way before her current one. Everything about past lives sounded like a joke to her up to this point.

On the other hand, Jean laughed awkwardly and said, "Nah, highly impossible. We were probably enemies from the first Regional War."

"Or, or, or," Connie cut in and grinned cheekily at his two friends who were starting to look amused talking about being enemies. "Since the two of you remind me of a bickering couple, perhaps you two are lovers from your past lives!"

Right after Connie had said that, a loud cough was heard at his side and a hand fell on his shoulder. Startled, Connie flinched and brought his shoulder away from that hand in response. All startled gazes dropped to the coughing boy next to Connie.

"I'm sorry." Eren coughed again, this time covering his mouth with both his hands. "I... choked."

Upon seeing his reddened face, a sly smile plastered on Ymir's face as she remarked, "You seem more shocked than Jean and Sasha."

"Don't worry about him," Mikasa said as she patted Eren's back gently, looking at Ymir with a straight face. "He has been shocked since earlier."

"Ah, that. Armin did a great job, didn't he?" Ymir laughed.

Looking puzzled, Armin glanced at Ymir and said, "Hm? I didn't do anything. What do you mean?"

Eren cleared his throat, capturing everyone's attention once more. His green eyes were staring hard at Jean. Seeing him look a little annoyed, everyone immediately fell silent, even Ymir's smile dropped quickly.

"Quit those past lives chat. Horse-faced, answer that 'truth' question now," he demanded and narrowed his eyes.

Jean's eyes widened for a brief moment before a deep crease formed between his eyebrows. "Are you trying to pick a fight with me too?"

Eren waved his words away, ignoring his question. Then, he asked Jean the 'truth' question which he had probably avoided answering, "Who did you call beautiful, huh?"

"Like I said, I couldn't remember!"

"If you pass this question, you will have to drink the beer," Eren continued.

"I'm telling the truth. Why do I have to drink the beer?" Jean challenged angrily.

"Because you-"

"Guys," Sasha interrupted Eren and turned to Jean with an awkward look on her face. "I take that answer as the truth, alright? We can continue with the game."

"Hear that?" Jean grunted at Eren as he took the bottle and spun it.

The bottle spun several times and finally, the cap pointed to Sasha again. The brunette let out a soft squeal and said, "I'm going to choose tru- no, dare."

Jean grinned evilly and warned, "Oh-ho! Really? I'm not going to go easy on you, you know. Brace yourself, Potato-girl."

Sasha put on a small smirk and crossed her arms confidently with a nod. She had tried dares in past games with her high school friends before and the dares were funny to her although she did not like acting like a fool in some of the dares. Some dares were pretty thrilling. There was once she had to catch a chicken in a neighbouring field while her amused friends hid behind the trees to watch her chase after the wild chickens. She had managed to catch one and held it up high by its legs to show her friends like she had won a trophy. Her friends were awed by how fast she could catch a chicken, probably thinking that she would fail to accomplish her dare. Sasha never knew that she could catch a chicken with her bare hands, so she took pride it that feat. She remembered boasting to her father about it and he laughed so much till he teared up. Little did she know that choosing 'dare' in this game was a huge mistake after provoking Jean...

"Well, I dare you to call the last person you texted today and say 'I miss you'."

Sasha looked wide-eyed at Jean as a small blush made its way to her cheeks for the second time of the day. "W-Wait, Jean. That's too..."

"Why? Feeling scared? Want to pass this up?" Jean said in a mocking voice.

"N-No..." her voice dropped as she dug into her pocket for her handphone.

There was no way she would resign to Jean's dare and drink that alcohol. At the start of the game, she had vowed to herself that she would not have a single sip of beer from those three cups. After fishing out her handphone, she opened her message inbox and stared at the person's name that was at the top of the list and whom she had texted the night before after work. A feeling of dread came upon her as a sigh escaped her lips.

 _Are you kidding me? Out of all people, it had to be my store manager?!_

"What's wrong, Sasha? Who's the person you last texted?" Marco asked her in concern upon seeing her looking distressed.

Sasha turned to look at Marco and said in a weak quivering voice, "What should I do? It's my store manager."

"Holy! That scary guy?" Connie gasped loudly.

"Oh? That would be interesting!" Jean laughed.

"I don't want to lose my job, okay!" Sasha cried, sounding alarmed and nervous as she put her handphone facing flat on the ground. "What if Levi fires me because I prank-call him?"

"Levi? Well, it's your dare. I couldn't possibly withdraw my request, could I?" Jean looked at Sasha with a smug, seeming to enjoy the anxious look painted on her face. "Maybe you could do yourself a favour by passing it and have a toast."

 _But I promised Papa that I wouldn't drink!_

Sasha's trembling hand slowly made its way to the cup of beer in front of her. She either had to break that promise or made that call. It wouldn't be so bad if she drank the alcohol since it had low alcohol content. It would save her from being fired by her store manager.

"Sasha."

She shifted her gaze from the beer to the girl sitting opposite of her. Mikasa held up her handphone and lightly waved it at her.

"Catch."

Before Sasha knew what was happening, Mikasa's handphone flew towards her. Instinctively, Sasha extended her arms towards the flying object and caught it swiftly. She brought the handphone towards her and stared at Mikasa in puzzlement.

"You can't drink alcohol, right?" her black-haired friend said. "You can use my phone to make the call. Your store manager probably won't know it is you who call him since he wouldn't recognise my number."

"Ah..." Sasha was at a loss for words. How did Mikasa know that she couldn't drink alcohol? She had never mentioned it to anyone before. Nevertheless, Mikasa had saved her again... in the strangest way possible.

"Sasha..." Connie paled as he looked apologetically at his best friend. "Sorry... I... I didn't know that you can't drink... I shouldn't have suggested this rule in the first place."

Seeing how guilty her friend look, Sasha shook her head and said in assurance, "No, it's okay! Honestly, it is not that I can't drink. It is more like I promise Papa that I won't drink while I'm here studying. He probably still thinks I'm a small kid." She laughed awkwardly.

"Oh."

Connie looked down with a small frown, still looking guilty. And that also made Sasha feel terrible as well because she could understand how he felt. They had been together since they were little, were best buddies, yet there were things that they couldn't or didn't tell each other. One example was the recent nightmares that she had been having. She didn't tell anyone, except for Krista and Ymir because they had been seeing her waking up disoriented. Connie only got to know about it after the girls had told him, thinking that he could help her since they were best friends. If Connie was also hiding things from her, she would definitely feel a little upset too. So, she could understand why he was looking upset.

Shifting her attention back to the phone in her hand, she looked at Mikasa and gave her a brief smile as she thanked her for lending her her phone. Despite that, she felt really horrible for making a prank call. It was already evening. At this hour, Levi was probably in the store, managing the stocks and cleaning up the place as usual.

If she faked her voice, would he notice that she was the one who called him? He wouldn't, right? He might think that it was some random person who had dialled the wrong number. As she slowly dialled her store manager's number, she felt her heart beating rapidly against her chest. She was so scared and nervous. After keying in his number, Sasha closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Then, she opened her eyes and pressed the call button without holding back any longer. The screen of the handphone changed colour and showed a large call icon in the middle. Just when she was about to bring the phone to her ear, Jean made a request for her to turn on the loudspeaker to ensure that she was indeed calling Levi. At first, she didn't want to do it but soon gave in to his request. She turned on the loudspeaker and a loud ringing sound was heard. Everyone leant closer to her as they waited for the call to be picked up.

After half a minute, the call was picked up and a low tired masculine voice was heard, _"Hello?"_

"Le-" Sasha immediately shut her mouth and held her breath. She almost gave herself away by saying his name!

She placed her hand against her throat and slightly raised the pitch of her voice as she spoke again, "I..."

She paused and bit her lips to ease her growing anxiety. She had to calm down or else, nothing could come out of her mouth. She kept telling herself that it was a joke and her store manager would not find out about it. Without further ado, she started again but her voice came out softer and weaker than before.

"I miss you."

Almost sounding like a whisper...

Everything went silent. A few seconds had passed, yet Levi wasn't saying anything back to her. Maybe he was wondering which idiot had dialled the wrong number. Or maybe he was contemplating if he should hang up the call. Nevertheless, Sasha and the others waited for his response a little longer. Just then, they heard a soft sigh coming from his side of the line and the recipient spoke again.

 _"Braus?"_

Sasha's breath hitched. She looked at her friends desperately and pleadingly, hoping that they would get the message that she wanted to hang up the call as soon as possible. However, they were also staring back at her with shocked faces, especially Connie whose face had become paler. She used Mikasa's handphone and faked her voice a little. So, how in the world did Levi know it was her who called?! Or had she heard him wrong?

 _"Hello? Where are you now?"_

Sasha continued to keep her silence as he continued.

 _"Braus? Answer me."_

Heck. He was really referring to her! Sasha mentally screamed in alarm. No, she had to hang up before she couldn't contain herself anymore. She let her thumb loom above the 'end call' icon on the screen. Just when she was about to hang up the call, Levi spoke again but in a slightly impatient tone.

 _"Where are you? I will pick you up."_

 _Noooooooo!_ Sasha slammed her thumb against the 'end call' icon and ended the call immediately.

She clutched the phone tightly and let out a shriek of distress, "Save me! Oh my gosh! Levi is coming to kill me!"

"More like he's coming to pick you up," Jean stated in a monotone and rested his chin on his palm, looking at Sasha in a dull manner. "He probably thinks that you are drunk and accidentally called him with someone else's phone."

Upon hearing that, Sasha brought her knees up and hid her face behind her knees. Then, she let out a soft whimpering cry. She was so dead. How in the world could Levi recognise her voice? How was she going to face him again on her next working shift? Should she act like she did not know anything if he mentioned about the call?

"I agree with Jean. He probably thinks that you had picked up someone else's phone and accidentally called him… umm… But if you ask me, it is highly unlikely you could remember his number after being drunk unless you dial his number on a daily basis," Krista suddenly spoke up and started to list down the 'assuring' possibilities. "Your words were so random and didn't make any sense either, and then you hung up. So, it is likely that he might think that it was someone else who had called him instead."

Sasha looked up a little, still hiding half of her face behind her knees as she looked at Krista.

"Furthermore, if he thinks that you are drunk and is willing to pick you up, that means he really cares about you. Not all managers are like that," Krista added with a smile. "Even if he still thinks it was you who called, I think he won't take what you said too seriously either. After all, he might assume that you were drunk and were intending to call someone else instead."

"You think so?"

Krista nodded. Sasha slowly lowered her knees as she forced an awkward smile. She knew that Levi cared for his workers. If only he could smile and open up more often, he would be more approachable. She could not deny that he was actually very good looking. Customers who had seen him for the first time would quietly steal glances at him or try to strike a friendly conversation with him. However, the latter would show his obvious disinterest in talking to them and even would go as far as ignoring them, especially those who were very persistent in trying to get his attention.

Oddly, for some reason, Sasha felt a little happy even though she knew that she was trouble. Yes, a trouble. If what Krista had said was true, then Levi was probably feeling very pissed and burdened because he had to pick up a stupid drunkard who had just called him to say that she missed him. She lowered her head and combed her fringe down, smiling sheepishly to herself. She was supposed to feel extremely scared because Levi might scold her again for being foolish, yet here she was smiling foolishly at Krista's comment. After straightening her fringe, she looked up and her smile was immediately wiped off at the sight of a pair of dark green eyes staring straight at her. They exchanged gazes but the moment didn't last long as his eyes quickly shifted away to look at something interesting on the wall. His eyes seemed to be speaking to her but at the same time, they seemed to shut her away.

Sasha felt her throat go dry all of a sudden. She felt like she had seen this scene before and she hated the anxious feeling that was beginning to gnaw her heart. This was not good. She could not have another nervous breakdown again like before. She could not afford that, especially in front of her friends. She knew that she was recently plagued with weird dreams and nightmares. To make matter worse, she was also beginning to hear foreign voices and feel emotions that were unknown to her. Yet, they felt so familiar to her.

Blocking off the unwanted feeling growing inside her once again, she quickly turned to Mikasa and stretched out her arm towards her to return her handphone. After Mikasa had retrieved her handphone, Sasha forced her attention back to the game as she took the bottle in the middle of the circle and gave it a spin.

 _"Go back home. You're not safe here, Sasha."_

 _"You have no idea why I came all the way here, right? I'm standing in front of you right now-"_

 _"Sasha, please..."_

 _"-and all you can say was telling me to go home. Seriously? Was that all you can say to me after so long?"_

 _He can't understand me._

 _"I came all the way here alone... because of one reason."_

 _"What is the reason that is more important than your safety? You almost get killed by the soldiers there! What if I didn't see you and bail you out..."_

 _I can't understand myself either. But one thing for sure..._

 _"Fine. I will go home. I don't want to talk to you anymore."_

 _I miss him so much that I have chosen to abandon everything at home... just to see his face. But he can't understand it._

 _"I'm sorry, Sasha. I'm very sorry..."_

 _Out of everyone, why does it have to be him? He is an idiot who made me wait for ages. Yet I like him so much._

-:-:-:-

 _"How is she, Hange?"_

 _His superior carefully pulled the blanket over the unconscious woman and turned to him with a small smile._

 _"She's fine now. She will probably gain consciousness a few days later. I will check on her again in an hour. Would you mind staying by her side till I return?"_

 _He looked away nonchalantly and muttered, "You don't have to ask me that."_

 _"Yes, you are right. You're already planning to stay by her side till she awake." His superior smirked with a nod. "I know what you are thinking."_

 _"Shut up."_

 _"But be sure to prepare the report by tomorrow."_

 _He sighed and waved lazily at his superior, signalling her to leave. She waved back and left the room. As soon as she left, he pulled the chair next to the bed and sat down. He felt so thankful at this moment. So thankful that the woman on the bed was alive. He quietly sat next to her, staring at her pale sleeping face with a still look that masked his sadness. Everything was going to be fine, he reminded himself. He trusted his superior's skills. He trusted that the will of the woman in front of him was strong enough for her to pull through this pain and whatever was hurting her... or whatever that had changed her._

 _Suddenly, he heard a soft groan escaped the woman's lips and a frown slowly made its way to her face. Startled, he leant forward and pressed his palms against the edge of the bed. He called her name twice, thinking that she was starting to regain her consciousness. Hearing nothing but soft groans from her, he began to feel worried for her. He had to call his superior as soon as possible before her condition got worse. Just when he stood up and was about to leave the bedside, he felt something brush against his fingers that were still on the edge of the bed. He glanced downwards and saw the woman's fingers touching his._

 _"I... didn't..." he heard her speak in a slow breathy voice, followed by another soft groan._

 _He could barely hear her words, but he knew that she was indeed talking to him as her half-lidded eyes were staring into his._

 _"I will call Hange," he told her. "I will be right back."_

 _"I didn't... mean..." she spoke again in a soft quivering voice. Her tears were slowly welling up in her eyes. "... to say... that."_

 _"Say what?"_

 _"I... will wait... no matter... how long it is..." She closed her eyes and let her tears fall from her eyes. "Sor-ry... because..."_

 _He didn't know what came over him at that instant. He wrapped his hands around hers and held it tightly. Whatever had happened before was probably hurting her even in her sleep. Whatever that had happened in Marley, and whatever that had changed her..._

 _"I... I_ miss you..."

Levi halted at the sound of her voice speaking the familiar words that never meant to be heard by him. It wasn't meant for him either, he had known this fact long ago. He thought that whatever had happened would remain a history to their past selves while a new life would dictate a new beginning. Apparently, despite being ignorant about the past, the never-ending loop of guilt and regret still continued to play around with her life. No, not only hers, but his too. The feelings of the past were too strong to break away from that loop. He wondered when all these would come to an end. If only he weren't born with _that_ blood again, he would be equally ignorant as her, having no past memories. He did not know which would be worse: being tied down both memories and feelings of the past, or being tied down by feelings with no memories of the past.

However, he would rather have the other option. A total blank slate.

He carefully turned his head and looked at the girl on his back to check if she was awake. Her cheek was resting on his shoulder while her arms hung heavily over his shoulders. She was still unconscious and her fever was very high. The only thing he could do for her was to take her to see the doctor as soon as possible.

"Levi! What are you standing there for? Hurry up and bring Sasha here!" Hange shouted from afar, waving her hand at him and then pointing at her car.

Letting out a soft sigh, Levi pushed his thoughts aside and nodded at the bespectacled woman in acknowledgement. Then, he adjusted the unconscious girl on his back and began walking towards the car again.

 _After 2000 years, even without any recollection of your past, why is your heart still yearning for_ him _, Sasha?_

 _Why do we have to meet again?_

 _The reason you went to Marley was to see_ him _, right?_ He _was that idiot who had died because of you. Have you met_ him _yet?_

 _After 2000 years, am I still late?_

* * *

 **Hi! Thanks for reading this chapter! I would like to thank _Xiumin Snape_ and _ALE686_ for reviewing the previous chapter, and also those who followed this fanfic. :)**

 **In reply to ALE686's question regarding about 'Reject Me Properly' (I write it here in case some of my readers here have previously read that one-shot), I have no intention to write a sequel now. But I have given some thoughts about writing it, maybe in Levi's perspective and what would happen after the ending of that one-shot. As I am trying to complete this fanfic, I won't be starting a new story any time soon. However, that doesn't mean that I won't be drafting the sequel during my spare time ;)  
**

 **Preview of Chapter 13:**

 _"Hurry up and finish it."_

 _Not comprehending what was happening suddenly, Sasha remained frozen with the bun still held close to her chest. Did he just tell her to continue snacking? At first, he looked like he was going to kill her. But a minute later, he was going lenient with her. What was going on? Still on her cautious mode, Sasha just stood still as her eyes continue to observe Levi who was also staring back at her. Who knows what would happen if she took a small bite of the bun?_

 **See you again in the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **13**

 _Dear Chris,_

 _How are you? Are you doing okay? It has been 20 years and I haven't heard from you. You are no longer living at Cozaire, aren't you? I couldn't find you anymore._

 _Remember the portraits in the basement? I gave them away. You loved the portraits so much that you would often come over to look at them. One of them reminded you of your beloved grandmother, Alexandra. She was a great and capable woman. Our grandmothers were best of friends._

 _I know that the portraits are our valuable assets that have been passed down for generations. But it is time to let them go. Our dear boy wasn't interested in them anymore. But are you?_

 _Time is changing. The original owner of the portraits doesn't need them anymore._

 _He's alive. And I guess, so is she. Just like how we are, living an endless circle of life on Earth. If she is not one of us, it is indeed a sad story for our dear boy._

 _I hope to see you again, Chris. We are too old for hide-and-seek, don't you think so?_

 _Yours,  
_ _Ken_

"Mr Braus."

A man with a short messy beard and moustache folded the letter into half and tucked it into the loose side pocket of his trousers. He turned around with a wide small on his face and greeted the couple behind him.

"Well, if it isn't Mr and Mrs Springers!"

"Hello, Mr Braus. We are sorry that we took so long to get ready," the shorter blonde woman greeted him with an apologetic look.

"No, it's okay. I didn't wait long, Mrs Springers."

The woman chuckled awkwardly and faced her taller husband who was looking equally guilty for coming late. Then, Mrs Springers looked at Mr Braus again with a cheerful grin.

"I guess we are ready to leave now?"

"Yup. Let's go!"

-:-:-:-

"Thanks for the party and the presents, guys. I had fun and I will make sure to open every present later at home," Eren said bashfully in front of his friends as a small blush made its way to his cheeks. "It's my first time having such a huge birthday party. With games and karaoke. Wow."

"I knew you would enjoy it." Jean smirked. "And Connie is right, your voice is good."

"Not rea-"

"But not better than me, of course," Jean added proudly, causing Ymir to roll her eyes at his statement.

"Yeah, right," Eren deadpanned.

Mikasa walked over to Eren with a small paper bag that contained some of his presents, and then she turned to face the others with a small smile. "I guess Eren and I shall head home first. It's getting late now. The Dorm Master will be making her rounds soon, right?"

Knitting her eyebrows together, Krista nodded and replied, "Yes, in half an hour time. She will usually make her rounds at 10 pm."

"Alright then, goodbye," Mikasa said and opened the door, lightly tugging Eren's sleeve to signal him to get ready to leave.

Eren nodded and followed her lead out of the house. Before he closed the door, he gave a final wave to his friends and said in a slightly teasing tone, "Bye. Oh, and don't get caught by the Dorm Master, boys!"

With that, the door was closed and a small laughter could be heard from outside. Everyone in the dorm stared at the door in silence as the footsteps faded away.

"How many cups of draft beer did Eren drink?" Connie suddenly spoke, looking rather surprised by the laughter. "Is it just me or Eren has just teased us?"

"I don't know," Krista muttered a reply as she shrugged. "Seeing him walk into the pantry... maybe six times during the karaoke session..."

Jean laughed. "And he got high and mocked all of us just like that? Weak."

"But Eren is right," Armin said, looking uneasily at Jean. "If we don't leave before 10 pm, we will be in big trouble."

True. There wasn't much time left before the Dorm Master made her usual rounds. Sasha crossed her arms and reminded her friends, "You guys promised to help out with the cleaning. Don't forget that."

"Geez. Of course, we didn't! A promise is a promise, right?" Connie assured her and turned around to face the decorated wall. "So... the decorations..."

"Yes?"

Connie turned to Ymir and asked, "Are you going to throw them away or reusing them again?"

"Hmm... Maybe I will keep those foil strips. As for the balloons and the banners, you can just throw them in the trash bin outside."

Jean jumped and took down a cluster of balloons from the ceiling. Smirking cheekily at Ymir, he threw the balloons towards her direction and watched it slowly glided down aimlessly as it failed to reach her.

"You don't want the balloons? You can reuse them again, you know."

"Don't be the next idiot. You guys inflated the balloons with your mouths and you expect me to keep those saliva- and breathe-filled balloons?" Ymir glared at him with her arms crossed. "No way, friend."

"Right. Thought you needed to smell our breaths," Jean chuckled, still amused at his own joke.

Sasha who had started peeling the decorations off the wall narrowed her eyes at Jean. While he was mocking about Eren being high from the draft beer, she was hundred percent certain that Jean was equally high from drinking just as many cups as Eren. Not like he had never teased people before as he always teased her whenever he had the chance to. But towards Ymir, he would be more cautious with his choice of words.

"Jean, so you want to die in the girl's dorm, huh?" Sasha heard Ymir grunt irritably. "I can carry you back to your dorm without a problem after I knock you out. Perhaps I will let you smell your own breath first."

Jean rolled his eyes with a soft snort as he waved her words off as if he didn't care a word she had just said.

Before Ymir could say any further, Sasha intervened, "Hey, Jean. Since you are the tallest among us, why don't you take down the decorations and dump those which Ymir doesn't need outside when you leave?"

"I can help Jean out with that too," Marco suggested.

"Sure, thanks." Sasha then turned to Armin and Connie. "And it would be great if Armin and Connie could help us with the litters."

Armin nodded and said with a smile, "Sure, we can sweep the floor."

"Then, the three of us shall clear the food and the disposal items, wash the plates and clean up the pantry," Krista proposed to Sasha and Ymir.

As everyone had agreed with the roles assigned, the seven of them started cleaning and tidying up the living room and the pantry without further ado. Just exactly five minutes before 10 pm, they had already cleaned up the area and the boys were getting ready to leave with a few trash bags in their hands. After bidding one another goodbye, the boys left and headed to their dormitory while throwing the trash bags on their way back. Meanwhile, Sasha offered to walk Armin to the entrance to ensure that he wouldn't be lost or get caught for wandering around the girls' dormitory. Although Armin rejected her offer, the brunette did not listen and handed him her light brown sun hat to hide his facial features. Since it was dark outside with a few lampposts illuminating the pathway to the entrance, it would be hard to identify him with a hat covering his head, or so Sasha hoped.

As soon as they arrived at the entrance, Armin pushed open the gate and stepped out of the compound. He removed the hat and handed it back to Sasha with a small smile.

"Hey, thank you for walking me to the entrance. Good thing that we didn't get caught."

Sasha put the hat on her head and laughed, "Yes, of course. I was so afraid but..." Sasha glanced around the garden behind her before turning back to face Armin again. "It seems that there isn't anyone roaming around here at this hour. Maybe not yet."

Armin nodded with a soft chuckle. "Well then, I better take my leave now. The Dorm Master will be making her rounds soon, so you better hurry back."

"Alright. See you next time."

Sasha waved goodbye to her blonde friend with a large beam. Oh boy, to be honest, she was feeling extremely happy that she had gotten to experience planning and attending a birthday party with her friends. Everyone had fun and she remembered seeing Eren smiling so happily upon receiving his presents. It reminded her of the child she had met in the game store the week before. Furthermore, it was not all the time she could see Eren smile. The party kind of started off awkward, especially with her friends giving her guiltily weird stares before and after Mikasa and Eren had joined them. But it wasn't exactly her fault that she did not notice Armin was making a call to Eren earlier. What if she was the one who had actually screwed up the original plan and everyone was inwardly mad at her for ruining the plan? Sasha quickly lowered her head in embarrassment and turned around, preparing to leave as soon as possible. The birthday party was over and nobody had mentioned anything about her screwing up the plan or whatsoever. Even Eren and Mikasa had come over just on time. So, it shouldn't be as bad as she had thought, right?

"Uh, wait, Sasha."

Sasha stopped and turned her head a little to look at Armin. Seeing him look at her with furrowed eyebrows, Sasha pressed her lips together worriedly.

"Is there something wrong, Armin?"

"I don't know how to say this, but please don't get angry. Alright?"

"What do you mean?" Sasha asked quizzically as she faced her friend.

"Well, you see, I thought I have to tell you this. I'm sorry that Krista and I didn't tell you earlier," Armin began, giving her an apologetic look. "Eren thought that I was with my grandpa today. But he later found out that you were with me because he heard your voice."

"Oh..." She knew it. The reason why the others were giving her weird stares was that she had ruined their plan earlier. She felt really guilty for this. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't know that you were on the line with Eren. I should have been more alert when I entered the house. I hope you and the others are not angry with me. I… I can write an apology message to everyone later."

Armin shook his head and clarified, "That's not really my point here, Sasha. No one is angry at you. In fact, Krista and Ymir seemed to be enjoying the change of plan."

Armin let out a soft chuckle while Sasha stared blankly at him, not knowing what was going on again. However, she kept her silence and waited for Armin to continue.

"We told Mikasa to tell Eren that you injured yourself during the archery training quite badly and that she had to visit you as soon as possible. Mikasa probably came out with other excuses in order to convince Eren to come here… seeing that Eren gave you an armguard."

"Oh, I see." Sasha glanced down and gently wrapped her bruised forearm with her fingers. "Now, I understand why he came in looking for me. He must be really surprised to find that I am actually looking all fine and well."

How was she supposed to feel? Angry because her friends had secretly used her as an excuse to make Eren come? Of course not. Why would she be angry over this? Besides, she was the one who had ruined the original plan. She tightened her grasp on her arm and smiled at Armin.

"Anyway, don't worry. I'm not angry. What matters most is that Eren enjoyed the party," Sasha assured, followed by a soft sigh as she looked down again. "It is my first time seeing him this happy. I'm glad that he had fun today."

"Is that so?"

Sasha's head sprang up immediately upon realising what she had just said. She felt her cheeks began to heat up despite mentally telling herself not to give her emotions away too easily. Thank goodness that it was dark so Armin would not be able to tell if she was blushing or not.

"Ever since I met Eren last year, we don't really interact much… I mean, we are friends but we couldn't sustain a conversation with each other. And I don't really see him smile a lot whenever all of us study and hang out together. So, today, seeing him having fun and laughing at our silly games and jokes… is like seeing the other side of him," Sasha explained honestly to Armin, partially hoping that her previous statement about her 'first time seeing him this happy' did not come off as rude for someone who did not know Eren as long as Armin did.

Armin crooked an eyebrow at her and then a laugh escaped his lips. He added, "He was probably like that because he was high from drinking Connie's draft beer."

Sasha shook her head with a sigh. "Right. He and Jean, seriously. Those boys couldn't stop competing with each other. I wonder how many cups they drank to make them this high. Krista drank three cups and was still fine."

"And Connie's beer was supposed to be light."

Sasha nodded. "Right."

"Anyway, Sasha, about the armguard which Eren gave you earlier," Armin changed the subject. "Do you like it?"

"Yes, of course. I am planning to wear it on Thursday for the tournament." Sasha grinned excitedly before giving Armin a puzzled look. "Why do you ask?"

"Ah, nothing. Just want to know," Armin replied in a softer voice. "I think Eren will be pleased to see you wear it during the competition."

"You think so?"

"Yup. I'm sure you have realised that he is a terrible liar. He bought that because he knew that you broke yours, but he probably didn't dare to give it to you till today when he heard that you had hurt yourself from the bow. He must have felt quite terrible for not giving it to you earlier," Armin said with an awkward laugh and then scratched his right cheek with a soft sigh. "Geez. I can't believe that I'm actually helping Eren to explain why he bought it."

"Oh, I see." Sasha nodded slowly and fell silent. How was she going to repay Eren? She did not like owing people things. Knowing that Eren did not buy that armguard at a discounted 'sale' price, he had definitely spent over thirty dollars for it. She did not remember taking note of the item code number so that might mean that the armguard was quite costly for her to consider buying it.

"I better head home now. I'm sorry for holding you back a little," Armin apologised as he gave Sasha a small wave. "Have a good night."

The corners of her lips curled up as she responded, "Goodnight, Armin. Be safe."

Seeing Armin walk away, Sasha closed the gate and was prepared to return back to the dormitory. However, she spotted a familiar tall scrawny woman carrying a lit torch and walking out of a building from the far left of the compound. Sasha froze as her widened eyes followed the movements of the woman. She could see the woman survey her surroundings with the touch before making a turn to do her usual routine at the row of houses behind that building. Taking this chance to get back to her dormitory safely without getting caught, Sasha took a shortcut as she sprinted across the grass patch which was actually not for students to walk on, except for the gardeners. Heck, she did not care about that rule unless someone decided to complain about her trampling on the grass. If the Dorm Master found out that she was not back home yet, she would receive a letter of warning for breaking the weekend 'curfew' rule. Most of the time, she had a reason for returning to her dormitory late because she had a part-time job and the Dorm Master knew about it. But this time, it would be weird if she was missing after a supposed birthday party.

When Sasha arrived at her doorstep, she fished out her keys from her pocket and unlocked the door. As soon as she entered the house, she hurriedly closed the door shut and fell on her knees tiredly to catch her breath. She glanced up and noticed Krista was peering at her through the small gap between the door and the frame. A small frown made its way to Krista's forehead.

"Did you just see a ghost outside? Why do you look as if you run metres-"

"She is coming!" Sasha said in panic and quickly stood up. "We have cleared everything, haven't we? All done? No litter or anything, right?"

"Yes, all done. Check for yourself. It's right in front of you." Krista stuck her hand between the gap and pointed at the common room. "By the way, Ymir is taking a shower. You can use the bathroom later."

Sasha let out a heavy sigh as she nodded in acknowledgement. With a small smile, Krista closed her door and soft high pitched squabbles could be heard coming from her room. It was probably Krista watching those late night melodrama series as usual. Sasha took off her sun hat and headed back to her room. Slumping her back against her bed, she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off until she heard someone whisper her name into her ear a few moments later. Startled, she woke up and her eyes darted to her right where she saw a person with wet wiggly brown hair covering her face resting her chin on the edge of the bed. Sasha's jaw dropped in horror as she let out a loud shriek, pushing herself out of bed instinctively.

"What the heck, Ymir!"

"Wakey. Time for a bath," her friend informed Sasha as she brushed her long fringe to the side, revealing a playful smirk on her face.

Sasha groaned and fell onto her bed again. "You don't have to scare me like that…"

"Madam Dorm Master has already dropped by."

"That was fast." Gosh, she did not know how long she had napped. Seeing that Ymir had just finished her shower, she guessed that she had napped for a good five to ten minutes. Glancing up at Ymir again, she queried, "Did she say anything about the party?"

"Nope."

"That's good."

"But she asked who Eren was."

 _What?_ Sasha paled. "How did she know?"

Ymir shrugged and muttered a reply, "She probably saw the disposed banner with Eren's name on it."

Sasha could feel her stomach drop and her lower lip quivered. "So, how now? Does she know that we invited the guys over?"

"Of course not. Krista and I told her that Eren was our girl-friend," Ymir said.

Sasha crooked an eyebrow and her mouth set in a hard line, trying to hold back a surprise giggle. She could not believe that her two friends had just said that. What a funny lie.

Ymir leant slightly forward as she brought her hand to the side of her lips and added, "Eren is the short form of Erena, Mdm Roth. She just likes to be called Eren."

"Oh my gosh. I can't believe you two!" Sasha laughed as she playfully pushed her friend's shoulder. "Imagine Eren finds out about this!"

"Erena, the Goddess of Peace! All hail to thy highness! Thee shalt findeth peace in h'r grace!"

"He will kill you."

"Jean will be called Jeanette."

"Jean will definitely let you smell those balloons."

"Marco will be called… uh, I haven't thought about it yet. Oh, Connie will be Cordelia," Ymir continued with her joke. "And Armin-"

"Armin will just be Armin," another voice interrupted her.

Sasha and Ymir turned her heads around and found Krista leaning against the door with her arms crossed and giving them a dull look.

"Ymir, let Sasha wash up now. Don't shower too late, Sasha," Krista ordered in her usual motherly tone. "I want to tuck in early tonight so you two better not make so much noise later, okay? I have a date tomorrow."

"A date?!" Ymir and Sasha gasped in unison.

"With who?" Ymir demanded while Sasha nodded excitedly at Ymir's question. Both waited in anticipation for their blonde friend's reply.

Krista frowned and looked away. "Everyone… everyone from my family."

"A family reunion?" Sasha blurted.

"Yeah," Krista sighed. "Something like that."

It was the first time Sasha had heard Krista mention something about her family. She had no idea why Krista looked a little upset when she mentioned about the family reunion. Weren't family reunions supposed to be happy occasions? As she thought about it, she wanted to have family reunions too. The only person she could return to was her father. She missed him so much and she wanted to take him out for dinner when she returned back to her hometown. Seeing Krista plaster a smile on her face as if nothing was wrong earlier, Sasha returned a weak smile and held back her curiosity. She knew that Krista would share about her family with her one day once she felt more comfortable doing so.

"Have a good day tomorrow. I assume you will be out the whole day?" Ymir asked.

"Yup."

All of a sudden, there was an awkward silence in which the three girls glanced at one another, not saying anything except for a few nods coming from Sasha who initially wanted to acknowledge Krista's reply. Thinking that she should divert everyone's attention away from the uncomfortable family reunion topic, Sasha stood up and stretched her back with a staggering yawn.

"Well then, have a good rest tonight! I will take a quick shower now."

Without further ado, she took her towel and grabbed a random piece of baggy shirt and her undergarments that were hanging on her chair backrest. Then, she left the room. Ymir stood up as well and observed Krista slowly pushing herself away from the door and making a turn back to her room. Ymir sighed and shook her head, helplessly.

"You are no different from Sasha. Do you know that?"

Krista halted and glanced at Ymir from the corner of her eyes. Another frown played on her forehead again as the corner of her mouth quirked up.

"If you put it like this, hiding ourselves before our friends, acting like it was no big deal… " she mumbled softly before facing Ymir with a small grin. "That makes all of us… right?"

-:-:-:-

After the quick warm shower, Sasha returned to her room and turned on her laptop to watch some funny videos to past some time while waiting for her hair to dry. While her laptop was starting up, her handphone buzzed continuously on her desk. Puzzled at the fact that someone would call her late at night, Sasha tilted her phone and took a look at the caller ID with a curious frown.

 _Eren Jaeger_

Her eyes widened in shock. She grabbed the phone and brought it closer to her face to have a better look at the ID. Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Eren was calling her! For the first time, she saw his ID popping up on her call screen. Could it be that he had dialled the wrong number? If not, why would he call her? He had never called her before! Sasha slammed her handphone against the keypad of her laptop and looked up to stare at the blank wall in front of her. She inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled, trying to calm herself down while the handphone continued to buzz on top of the keyboard.

She glanced down and carefully picked up her handphone again. On the count of three, Sasha answered the call and pressed her phone against her ear.

"Hey, Eren! What's up?" she greeted in a cheery tone, successfully hiding her nervousness.

 _"Hi, Sasha. Sorry for calling you at this hour. Were you sleeping?"_

"Nope. I just had a shower. Why?"

 _"Ah, I just want to say..."_ A brief pause. _"Thank you for the present."_

 _Oh._ Sasha smiled and said, "You're welcome. Do you like it?"

 _"Of course! Uhh..."_ Another pause. _"I had always wanted to buy this game ever since its release."_

"Glad that you like it!"

 _"Thank you so much."_

"You're welcome."

Not surprisingly, their conversation died while still on the line. Both of them did not say anything after that, and all Sasha could hear at the other side of the line was Eren's soft 'umm's and 'uhh's. Wow. This was probably the second most awkward call of the day after her call with Levi, Sasha inwardly mused.

"Well, I guess... goodnight?" Sasha spoke with a weak laugh.

 _"Actually, I have something else to ask you, Sasha."_

"What is it?"

 _"You know, the Attack on Titan game has the double player function. And, uh, do you want to come over sometime to play the game... with me?"_

Sasha's eyebrows rose a notch at his invitation. For a moment, she thought that she had heard him wrong. It was her first time being asked by him if she was interested to play a game with him. Of course, she wanted to play it! She wanted to know if the game was really interesting as the online promotional video had promised. Since Eren was inviting her, she couldn't possibly miss this chance, right?

 _"It's okay if you don't want to! I heard from Connie that you play video games too. So, I thought... maybe, just maybe, you would be interested in this game. But I may be wrong because not-"_

"You're not wrong," Sasha interrupted him. "I like this type of games too."

 _"Really?"_ She could hear his voice brighten up. _"So... do you want to play Attack on Titan with me? Maybe after this week's tournament, like next week?"_

"Hmm, sure... But I will be returning to my hometown after the tournament. I won't be back until the last week of our break," Sasha said in a dejected voice. "I'm sorry, Eren."

" _No, it's okay. Don't worry, we can play it together when you are back."_

"Alright. Thank you for inviting me to play the game, Eren. I bet it will be a cool game!"

Eren chuckled, " _Definitely! The promotional video was amazing."_

"It sure was," Sasha agreed with a laugh.

Again, there was another long pause. Sasha leant backwards and rested against the backrest, combing her wet hair with her fingers as she waited for him to say something. There must be a reason why he was still holding on to the call… Or was he actually waiting for her to end this call? Sasha furrowed her eyebrows. It would sound extremely weird for her to initiate ending the call twice because it would make her look as if she did not want to talk to him at all. _Oh my gosh, Eren, say something! What should I say? I want to sleep now, goodnight? Goodbye?_ Sasha mentally cried painfully to herself. The silence was so painful to her soul.

" _Hey, Sasha."_

"Yes!" Sasha straightened her back and then bit her lips in anticipation for what he was going to say to her.

" _Uh… nothing..."_

Sasha felt like pinching the tensed folds between her eyebrows. She wasn't frustrated with him. She was just feeling like an idiot for actually thinking that he had something else to speak to her. What was she actually expecting? Not like they were so close that they could talk about randomly stupid things like she and Connie always did. Eren just needed a playmate and he was just being nice and courteous to her because she was the one who had given that game to him as a birthday present.

" _Goodnight. Talk to you next time, Sasha."_

"Yup. Goodnight," Sasha said and immediately hung up the phone call.

She put her handphone next to her laptop and covered her flustered face with her palms, trying to hide her embarrassment from _herself_.

-:-:-:-

After a nerve-wrecking sleep, her payday had finally come. Not only that, another embarrassing realisation had arrived at her doorstep - how was she going to explain to Levi about the prank call? Should she be honest and admit that she was dared by her friends? Or should she just act like she didn't know about it? After thinking about this prank call the whole night, she still did not get how Levi could identify her voice.

Sasha left the campus after her dinner and bought a freshly baked potato from a roadside stall to munch on while on her way to work. Upon arriving at the convenience store, Hannah and Franz were preparing to leave the store and hand the shift over to Sasha as usual. Levi, on the other hand, was not in sight.

"Levi has gone out for a moment," Hannah informed Sasha after seeing her peering into the back of the store. "I don't know where he has gone, but he left with Mr Bozado just now."

Sasha turned to look at Hannah and acknowledged, "Okay. Do you know when he will be back?"

"No idea. I'm sorry," Hannah replied. "Will you be fine on your own?"

Right. She would be on her own. Rather than feeling relieved that she did not have to face Levi yet, she was actually feeling perturbed by the fact that she had to look after the store alone. All these while she had been working with at least a person during her shift so she was never alone. Would she really be fine on her own?

"I'm sure Sasha will be fine. She has been working with us for a year, so she's pretty familiar with how things work by now," Franz assured his wife, then he smiled at Sasha. "Don't hesitate to give us a call if anything happens, Sasha."

"O-okay!"

"We will leave now. Take care!"

The couple waved goodbye to Sasha and left the store. Sasha hurriedly entered the storeroom and changed into her working polo tee before tending to the counter. Three hours had passed and the sky outside had turned dark, yet Levi had not returned back to the store. She was done restocking the items on the shelves, snacked on a red bean bun, and cleaned off any dirt on the floor like what Levi always did even though she couldn't say that she agreed with his cleaning obsession. But hey, she couldn't get on his bad side when he returned. If he saw those stains on the floor, he would definitely call her to clean up the whole area, including the storeroom.

An hour later, while Sasha began snacking on her second red bean bun behind the counter, she heard a soft creak coming from the entrance. Knowing that someone had entered the store, Sasha immediately hid the bun under the table and glanced up with a warm smile to greet her customer.

"Welcome..." her voice dropped upon realising who had entered the store.

Dressed in a white dress shirt with a black tie and a pair of black trousers, her store manager walked into the store with a tired look on his face. She had never seen him in a formal attire before. However, it was not surprising that he would wear one since it was possible that he had a formal meeting with Oluo, and perhaps with the other higher-ups.

She put on a smile again and greeted cheerily, "Hi, Levi!"

Levi nodded in acknowledgement, not saying anything in return, and he headed to the back of the store. Seeing him close the door behind him, Sasha gulped and chewed her lower lip in paranoia. She could sense that he wasn't too happy about something. Maybe he was really mad at her because he knew that she had prank-called him. What was she going to do? Just then, the storeroom door opened again, causing Sasha to instinctively flinch and look away. She rubbed the side of her neck as she looked out the glass panel next to her, pretending to admire the little cafes at the opposite shophouses. Having changed out of his formal dress shirt to his working polo tee, Levi walked out of the storeroom and headed towards the cashier counter where Sasha was at.

In a low voice, he remarked, "Snacking on buns again, huh."

Sasha stiffened militarily and she guiltily gazed into Levi's sullen eyes. She lowered her head apologetically and said, "I'm sorry."

Then, she looked up again and pointed at the cash register. "But I didn't steal, I swear. I paid for them already."

"I didn't say anything about stealing," he bellowed and crossed his arms, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Did I?"

Lowering her head again, Sasha swallowed hard and tucked her hands behind her back. It was no doubt that Levi was mad. Really mad.

"I'm sorry," she repeated in a quivering voice.

Oh gosh, she was really scared. She knew that she shouldn't be secretly snacking on buns during work but she could not control her hunger. In an environment filled with snacks and soft drinks, she could not stop her brain from sending hunger messages to her stomach. She made a mental note to herself to just buy some sweets from her school canteen and popped them into her mouth during work whenever she was hungry. Well, she should have done this _smart_ thing way beforehand. _What a stubborn greedy idiot_ , she scolded herself.

"Hurry up and finish it."

"Huh?" Sasha looked up and saw his eyes boring into the counter as if he could see her bun hiding beneath it. Sasha hesitantly took out the bun which was still in its wrapper and held it close to her chest, cautiously observing his eyes trace her movement. Their gazes met for a brief moment before Sasha looked away. She stammered softly, "I sh-shall eat it af-af-ter w-work."

"It won't be fresh anymore since you have already opened the packet," her store manager said. "I'm not going to say anything, so just eat it. I will be at the back of the store."

Not comprehending what was happening suddenly, Sasha remained frozen with the bun still held close to her chest. Did he just tell her to continue snacking? At first, he looked like he was going to kill her. But a minute later, he was going lenient with her. What was going on? Still in her cautious mode, Sasha just stood still as her eyes continue to observe Levi who was also staring back at her. Who knows what would happen if she took a small bite of the bun?

"Are you going to eat it?" he asked with eyebrows raised, which apparently seemed like a challenge in Sasha's eyes.

Like hell she was going to eat her bun in front of her store manager if he was really mad at her. Sasha shook her head and brought the bun to her side, squeezing the bun a little as she did so.

"Nope. I'm good for now. I will keep it in my bag. I'm really sorry for… snacking during my shifts. I promise I won't do it next time, Levi. No, I mean, Sir."

With an apologetic bow, Sasha hurriedly left the counter and headed towards the storeroom where her bag was kept in. Before she could enter the storeroom, a voice called out to her.

"Braus."

"Yes!" Sasha responded quickly with a halt and turned around to face her store manager again.

Levi let his arms fall to his sides as he averted his gaze away from her. Finally. Since earlier, his eyes had never left her and no doubt that Sasha felt really uneasy and scared under his gaze. However, seeing him look reluctant to speak any further, Sasha instantly knew that the things he might say next would not be good at all. Nevertheless, she patiently waited for him to speak although her heart was beating rapidly and her hands trembled nervously behind her back.

After what it felt like an eternity, she heard him clear his throat and looked back at her again with a serious look.

"I have something important to tell you."

* * *

 **Hello! Thanks for reading this chapter. The birthday scene is finally done. Phew! Now, moving on to the next development - Archery, Alexandra, and the Ackermans.**

 **SnK Chapter 105 gave me a week of depression ( _lol, I really cried when I read it_ ). ****Not going to spoil the story to those who haven't read the manga yet. The spoilers were all over the place on some social media platforms, I couldn't help but kept seeing those scenes over and over again. Isayama has his ways to break our hearts. :(**

 **Anyway, I would like to thank _HopePlease_ , _Aisasha_ , _ALE686_ and _Xiumin Snape_ for reviewing the previous chapter. I just want to let all of you know that your reviews mean so much to me!**

 **Preview of Chapter 14:**

 _Just when she was about to push open the large doors to enter into the waiting area, she heard a man's voice echo in the long walkway. It sounded distant._

 _"Chris?"_

 _Sasha froze. Her hand rested against the door, leaving it open as she turned to the source. Standing a few metres away from her was a lanky, middle-aged man with a thin beard along his jawline and wearing a black coat over his police uniform. His eyes scanned her from head to toe before looking away with a small frown. Sasha continued standing next to the doorway, feeling stunned and speechless. Did a police just call out_ her _name?_

 **Till next time!**


	14. Chapter 14

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **14**

Her bus ride had never felt so long before. The two rowdy children occupying the seats in front of her were laughing loudly and rocking against the seats, causing her backpack that was leaning against the backrest to shake nonstop. If this scene were to happen on any other normal days, she would have been irritated and interrupted the children's fun despite feeling bad for being a killjoy. However, she was in a low mood to even feel irritated. While she pressed her forehead against the glass panel, her eyes were glued to the moving scene outside as the bus travelled through the bustling town area. The whole bus was filled with the children's laughter and some middle-aged office ladies chatting rather loudly behind her. These lively sounds did not reach her ears. She felt so disconnected from her surroundings. All she could feel was being stuck at _that_ moment which kept replaying in her head.

The bus came to a halt and more passengers boarded the bus. Sasha noticed many food stalls with bright flickering lights lined up neatly along the roadside, and a small smile formed on her face. With her forehead still pressing against the panel, she tilted her head a little more to the side to have a better look at the delicious food that was being served to the happy customers before her bus took off again. Out of the blue, a squabble between a male and a female began on board.

An annoyed female's voice was heard, "I told you that I will be fine. Stop following me."

"I promise Grandpa that I will take you home safely," a male's voice was heard as well, sounding calmer than the female's voice.

"I have no home."

"I mean, your dormitory."

The female scoffed and said, "Do you know what? I boarded the bus so that I could be at peace. You can just jump off the bus right now and drive back home."

"Don't be mad already. Our relatives didn't mean to put you in that position. They-"

"They are selfish and mean, yes. Just because I am his daughter, that doesn't mean they can sell me off like that!"

"They are not-"

"I am not an item!" the female shouted, startling everyone on the bus.

Sasha flinched in shock as she was immediately drawn back to reality. She turned to look where the quarrelling sounds had come from, and her eyes fell on a beautifully-dressed girl standing at the front of the bus with a very tall man in front of her. The pair was facing each other with the girl glaring intensely at the tall man who was giving her a poker-face.

The girl frustratedly pulled out the ribbon that secured a tiny bun on her head and let her blonde hair fall to her shoulders and on her back.

"I want to live my life. My own life. I don't belong to your family. Not anymore!"

"Kris-"

"The moment they died, I am no longer part of anyone's family. So, please, if you and the others have a heart, don't bring me to those places again. I beg you… I trust that you will stop them because you are my big brother!"

The girl turned away from the man and moved further into the bus, ignoring the stares from the other passengers. The man sighed in defeat and followed behind her. As the girl made her way towards the back of the bus, Sasha managed to catch a glimpse of the beautiful girl's stern face and could quickly recognise her.

The blonde in a beautiful white short-sleeved dress was actually Krista, her friend.

Sasha gasped softly as her eyes followed Krista, not knowing if she should call out to her or pretend that she didn't see her. Sasha shifted her attention to the man trailing behind her and noticed that he also bore similar features to Krista, except that he was more masculine and taller. He had a pair of deep blue eyes, angular jaw, fair skin, and fine blonde hair. At first glance, anyone could tell that the pair was related to each other.

"Sasha?"

At the call of her name, Sasha turned to look at Krista with wide astonished eyes like a deer in the headlights. Krista was also giving her a surprised look as she stood still in the aisle.

"Krista... Hello..." Sasha greeted awkwardly and forced a weak smile at her friend. "What a coincidence."

Krista relaxed her tight muscles between her brows and smiled back. Then, she turned to look at the man behind her. She spoke to him in a nonchalant manner, "I'm with my friend now. She lives with me. You can rest assured that I will return back to my dormitory safe and sound. You don't have to stay through this bus ride, you know?"

The man did not say anything, except staring dully at her as if he had enough of her stubbornness. Knowing that the man wouldn't change his mind about making sure she had safely made her way back to the dormitory, Krista turned her back towards him and momentarily frowned at his lack of response towards her. She walked to the empty seat beside Sasha and sat next to her.

"How was work today?" Krista began speaking to Sasha.

"Uhhh…" Sasha scratched her nose and avoided Krista's gaze as she replied, "Good, I guess?"

"I see."

Sasha looked at Krista again and queried in a concerned voice, "What about you? You don't seem… too good earlier."

"Oh, that. I… I have an argument with that guy there as you have seen just now," Krista muttered, pointing at the blonde male who had already taken a seat on the other side of the aisle. "Nothing serious. It usually happens."

The brunette shifted her gaze to the man. He was looking at the moving scenery outside the bus; perhaps he had already given up on trying to speak to Krista. To Sasha, it did not look like a non-serious matter. Earlier, Krista seemed so crossed and even made a scene on a public bus. Krista was never like this. There were times when Krista would get angry over annoying things, such as the continuous silly fights between Sasha and Jean every now and then. As far as Sasha knew, Krista would never shout at the other person.

"You are probably wondering who he is, right?"

Sasha returned her gaze back to Krista and nodded hesitantly.

"Like Armin, he is the son of my mother's cousin. He is like my big brother," Krista explained with a small smile. "He's actually very nice and kind like Armin. It is just me and my tiredness that got me really edgy and making a huge fuss about everything he and the others said."

It kind of made sense why Krista and that man looked a little alike. What surprised her more was that their fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes traits appeared to be running strong in Krista's family, especially from her mother's side.

"Oh, I see." Sasha nodded understandingly. "Well, you have spent the whole day outside. Of course, you would feel tired. Let's rest early tonight, okay?"

"Yup!"

"Better to calm edgy Krista down with sleep, yeah?"

"Not funny, my girl. I've already calmed down just by talking to you," Krista giggled, circling her arm around Sasha's arm and gave her light nudge. "By the way, we can have some potato chips after our baths. I'm getting hungry, I don't know why."

"Okay!" Sasha giggled along and lightly bumped her head against Krista's head, a gesture which she and Krista would always unconsciously do to each other as a sign of their friendship-affection (they even did this to Ymir who, unfortunately, did not seem to enjoy being bumped by the two girls). Sasha continued, "Krista, I will let you use the bathroom first. I have got some things to do when I get back home."

"Sure, thank you," her blonde friend responded.

After the bus ride, the girls headed back to their dormitory while Krista's relative left to take another bus in the opposite direction. As soon as the girls entered their dormitory, they were greeted by Ymir who was munching on potato chips and watching the television in the common room. Krista went to take a warm shower first while Sasha took a few chips from Ymir before making her way to her bedroom. After closing the door behind her, Sasha threw her backpack on the floor and tiredly climbed onto her comfy bed with her laptop. She lay on her stomach while waiting for her laptop to startup. As her fingers ran through the keyboard, she let out a soft tired sigh.

" _I have something important to tell you."_

" _What is it?"_

" _We are undergoing some major changes to our system here. It is decided that all branches, including this store, will be opened for 24 hours. This means that we will be getting more workers."_

 _It sounded good to her at first. A convenience store that served its customers after 12 midnight seemed like a good idea. After all, she would love to visit a store that sold snacks if she ever got hungry in the middle of the night. Whoever came out with this idea was genius._

" _We will be having two new full-time workers starting from next week. They will be doing night shifts, six times a week. A part-time worker who will be covering the shifts for two weekday nights."_

 _She nodded. It didn't sound too bad. After all, it made sense that they should employ a few more workers to work at night._

" _It will be a 12-hour night shift, just like the day shift."_

 _She nodded again. But it was only a few seconds later, it dawned on her that this wasn't exactly a good idea. To her._

" _Wait, Levi. Does that mean… I…" Sasha found herself unable to find the right words to continue what she wanted to say._

 _With almost everyone working 12 hours six times a week, how many shifts would there be left for her to do? Just like the new part-timer who would be doing the night shifts, Sasha would only be working for two days a week at most. That obviously meant she would be at a loss. No, as much as she would like to be supportive of the new changes, she could not let her number of shifts to decrease that much._

 _Her store manager avoided her shocked gaze and informed, "I will let everyone know their new shifts for next week soon. For this week, we will still keep to same timings and shifts."_

" _Is there any way… I can take on more day shifts?" she asked him in a soft voice._

 _He briefly glanced at her and looked away again. "I will see how."_

 _Seeing that there might be some hope that she wouldn't lose most of her shifts, Sasha tried to smile but the side of her cheeks felt so stiff. A part of her knew that it was hopeless. Furthermore, it felt like she was the only person who did not know about the changes. Did Hannah and Franz knew about them? Why was she only informed the week before the changes would be implemented? That was so unfair. Sasha shook her head to drive the negative thoughts away. What if Levi had also just gotten to know about these changes? Maybe that was why he was in such a bad mood, she thought to herself._

" _By the way, where were you last night?"_

 _She was stunned by this question although she had been expecting him to ask her about the prank call since earlier. How many more times would Levi keep 'surprising' her with his words?_

 _She averted her gaze from him and replied, "I was in my dorm the whole of yesterday. It was my friend's birthday… so we had a small party in our dorm."_

" _I see."_

 _She cautiously shifted her gaze back to Levi and asked, "Why did you ask?"_

" _No, it's nothing. Just wondering… if you can do Sunday night shifts from next week onwards. That's all."_

It was obvious that Levi was also trying to cover up the phone call last night after finding out that it was probably not Sasha who had called him. Sasha lowered her head with a small frown. She knew that it would definitely sound contradicting if she said that she would rather him telling her about the weird phone call than him avoiding the whole subject and replacing with an excuse that did not make sense. Her doing night shifts? Really? What about the new part-timer? The fact that how Levi had known that it was her who had called him was a mystery. As much as she wanted to know, she could not bring herself to carry on with this conversation. Some things were best not to know. Some things were best to be kept in silence.

However, she had more important things to worry about. Her job. Her monthly salary. Her rent. Her school fees. Food. The list went on and she felt burdened by them. She could wait for her store manager to sort the schedule out for her as there was little hope that she could continue with what she had always been doing. She had to do something about her situation. After all, things were usually better if there were alternative plans to fall back on.

 _Search engine: Part time jobs for university students_

Enter.

-:-:-:-

"So, yesterday was my big day and today is my best friend's big day. Basically, she plays archery and oh boy, she's a pro at it. You guys have to watch her shoot some arrows. And yes, I know you guys haven't seen her before. So, today is the chance! I told her that I couldn't make it for her competition because I got into the quarterfinals. What she didn't know is that I have come all the way to the National Indoor Stadium to watch her shoot after my games. Shhhh... I'm going to surprise her! I bet she is already halfway through the games, probably taking the lead now!"

"Connie, stop standing there! You can do this later!"

The buzz-cut lad turned to his parents who were already a couple of metres away from him, standing near the entrance of a stadium. Connie raised his palm to signal them to wait for him. Then, he turned to look at the lens of his camcorder again with a wide grin.

"My parents are already calling for me. They are pretty excited to watch her shoot arrows too. Now, let's go in and watch her!"

Putting his camcorder on standby mode, Connie caught up with his parents and the Springers family entered the stadium. Loud cheers could be heard as the electronic scoreboard updated the players' score. It was already past 12 noon and it seemed to Connie that the players from the second category had just started the first round.

"Interschool Indoor Archery Recurve Women?" Connie's father read out the pixelated words at the top of the scoreboard. "Hey, does that mean we are somewhat on time?"

"It has already started not too long ago," Connie answered while scanning the side faces of the players in the arena. "I can't see Sasha."

"Looks like Pieck Jung is taking the lead now," Connie's mother stated as she pointed at the scoreboard. "And where's Sasha? Hmm… Oh, I found her name!"

"Where?"

"She…" Mrs Springers bit her lips worriedly as her eyes were glued to the numbers next Sasha's name on the screen. "She isn't doing too well, it seems. Fourth last place."

-:-:-:-

 _Earlier…_

Brown eyes staring intently at the brown dirt on the wall, Sasha brought up her arrow and pulled back the bowstring. On the count of three, she let go of the bowstring and heard the swishing sound made by the string cutting through the air next to her ear.

 _Bullseye._

Sasha smiled to herself and pulled the bowstring again. She focused on the brown dirt once more and let go of the bowstring, imagining herself shooting real arrows. If this wasn't called a shooting stimulation, she had no idea what kind of cool name to call this practice. As she was about to pull the bowstring again, she heard footsteps coming from the exit staircase behind her. As she was afraid that the exit door might suddenly fling open and hit her, she quickly withdrew her bow and scurried away from the door. True enough, the door opened, revealing the faces of her team captain and the participating team from her archery club.

"There you are, Sasha. We were looking everywhere for you!" her team captain said crossly. "What are you doing in the third-floor lobby?"

Sasha grinned sheepishly and held up her bow. She answered him, "Practicing by myself."

"Without arrows? Are you serious?" a male from the participating team scoffed. "That's what beginners do before learning how to pick up an arrow, girl."

Sasha's grin was wiped off by that insolent male's comment. Well, not like she could be shooting arrows wherever she liked, right? Couldn't this male senior let her off without saying sarcastic remarks towards her all the time? She was just fooling around alone by herself, and it wasn't even her turn yet! She swore that this guy had always said mean things to her ever since her team had lost the previous competition.

"Why? I was warming up," Sasha retorted as she narrowed her eyes at the male.

"Hey Brett, come on. Don't always be so mean to your friends," a female member from the participating team chided her male teammate. Then, she turned to Sasha with an excited smile and announced, "Sasha, we have good news!"

Sasha looked curiously at her female senior as the senior hopped to her side and held her wrist, giving it a light shake.

"Our team got into the quarterfinals!"

"Oh my gosh! Good for you all!" Sasha squealed loudly and embraced the female senior in excitement.

"Well, of course, we can get into the quarterfinals. We are pros," the annoying male boasted aloud, earning a hard stare from his female teammate.

"Call yourself a pro after we win this whole tournament, Brett."

"Right. You are still hundred years too early to call yourself a pro," their team captain agreed, lightly nudging the male's arm. "Oh, and Sasha, the Recurve Women category is starting in fifteen minutes. So, please head down to the waiting area to prepare yourself. I was wanting to tell you that since just now."

Sasha released the female senior and straightened her back in an attentive manner. In acknowledgement of her team captain's words, she nodded and thanked him for informing her. The team captain extended his arm towards her and patted her on the shoulder with an encouraging smile.

"You can do it, Sasha. The Ace and I have faith in you."

"Thank you. I will do my best."

"Don't go around shooting without arrows, Sashie!"

If Sasha had an extra pair of eyes at the back of her head, she would have rolled those eyes many times each time that annoying guy opened his mouth. At first, it was _Sashey_ when they had first met during the shooting trial the year before. After that, it went from _Sashey_ to _Sashimi_. Then, from _Sashimi_ to _Sushi_. After her first failed competition, he called her _Sa-fehler_. Sasha was curious enough to look up what _fehler_ meant on the internet after noticing some club members giggle at her new nickname. It was only then she had realised that he had just called her a _failure_ in another language. What she hated most was to be called a failure; so, of course, she got really angry and avoided talking to that annoying senior for weeks until he finally called her by her name. Well, it was only that one time when he had really called her Sasha. Afterwards, he returned to his name calling games again.

"Brett, it's Sasha. Sa-sha."

"Sash."

This time Sasha let out a loud groan as her eyes rolled upwards in disbelief. "I swear to God that my name is getting weirder each time you try to pronounce my name."

"I'm not even trying."

"I can tell," Sasha muttered irritably to herself in a soft voice. "Gosh, you are worse than Jean."

"Huh? What are you muttering about?"

Ignoring his question, Sasha turned to face her team captain again and gave him a thumbs-up. She was ready to take on the upcoming challenge. She had been training so hard for this day and she really hoped that she could bring home a medal. She wanted to make her father proud by showing him the medal that she had won. Clasping the bow between her arm and her body, Sasha lowered her head to her seniors and walked past them through the exit door. She climbed down the stairs to the ground level and made her way to the waiting area where all the other archery players should be at. Just when she was about to push open the large doors to enter into the waiting area, she heard a man's voice echo in the long walkway. It sounded distant.

"Chris?"

Thinking that it was someone calling out to another person along the walkway, Sasha ignored the person and went ahead to push open the door. Cold air rushed out of the stadium and brushed against her face. The aromatic smell of fried chicken was surprisingly present in the stadium and that no doubt made her stomach growl a little. She had just stuffed herself with two crepes and a potato salad, which were sold in a nearby diner. But the smell of fried chicken was irresistible. She had to order a tub of fried chicken when she returned back to her dormitory after the tournament!

"Chriselda?"

Sasha froze. Her hand rested against the door, leaving it open as she turned to the source. Standing a few metres away from her was a lanky, middle-aged man with a thin beard along his jawline and wearing a black coat over his police uniform. His eyes scanned her from head to toe before looking away with a small frown. Then, he adjusted his peaked cap and smiled apologetically at her.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I have mistaken you for someone else. Please don't mind me."

With a bow, the man walked away from her and entered the stadium from another door. Sasha continued standing next to the doorway, feeling stunned and speechless. Did a police just call out _her_ name? It could be a coincidence, right? Without thinking, she rushed into the waiting area and looked up to the tier of seats near the door which that police that walked through. Her eyes scanned the audience, searching for him. However, he could not be found.

"Sasha!"

Sasha turned around and found a small figure jumping frantically on her seat on the other side of the stadium, trying to get the brunette's attention. A smile made its way to her face as she realised who was calling her from afar. She was extremely happy that her friend had come to watch her. Oh, how she wished that Connie was here as well! Unfortunately, since he had successfully entered into the quarterfinals, he couldn't watch the archery tournament as his match fell on the same day as hers. Nevertheless, she knew that she had his support.

She ran towards that direction and stopped right behind the metal barricade that marked the boundary for the waiting area. Sasha waved back to Krista who began waving back to her… _with two fried chicken drumsticks_ in both hands. Next to Krista was Ymir sitting calmly on her seat and tearing the chicken meat with her teeth while her other hand was holding up a placard that was written ' _Go Sasha! We love you!_ '. Sasha giggled. So, this was where the fried chicken drumstick smell came from.

"Save me some drumsticks, Krista! Ymir!" Sasha shouted.

"Okay!" Krista shouted back and jumped off from her seat, throwing the drumsticks into the tub on Ymir's lap.

Sasha saw her scoot over to another crowd of audience where she could barely see who was among those people. Not long after, the blonde left the crowd while making quick frantic gestures towards someone as she walked backwards. Then, Krista pointed at Sasha. Curious by her gestures and wondering who her friend was trying to communicate to, Sasha squinted to have a better look at those people in the crowd. Just then, she saw a tall dark-haired male pushing his way out of the crowd while his eyes were staring intently at her. He managed to leave the crowd and stood right behind the metal barricade that bound the audience seating area. Two more people followed behind him and also came to her view. It dawned on her that Armin and the Jaeger siblings had arrived.

Feeling touched that more friends had come to watch her match, Sasha found herself tearing up. She felt so happy that she wanted to cross over the barricades and ran over to the audience seats to give everyone a big hug. She wished that she had spent some time wandering in the audience area so that she could at least be with her friends. She knew that Krista and Ymir would most likely come despite them telling her that they had to check their schedule first. They were always there for her no matter how busy they were. Jean and Marco had gone to watch Connie's match. But she did not expect Eren, Mikasa, and Armin would come to watch hers as well.

Closing her eyes, she wiped off her tears with the back of her palm. She told herself that she would definitely win the first round and not disappoint those who had come to give her their support. She looked over to her friends again and waved. Her eyes unknowingly fell on Eren and her heart fluttered at the reminder that she was wearing the armguard he had given her on his birthday. She bit her lower lip shyly as she raised her left arm higher in the air. Then, she pointed at the armguard, showing him that she was wearing it as promised. Seeing his eyes light up and his mouth curve into a smile, Sasha returned a cheery grin and dropped her arm to her side.

"May all the participants gather for a quick spot-check. Take your bow and arrows with you."

 _I gotta go now._

Like other competitors, Sasha headed to the booth at one corner of the waiting area to mark her attendance and have her bow and arrows checked. Then, she was led to her standing spot which was 25 metres away from her target in the arena. Sasha would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous at all. When she was practising in school, she did not have so much pressure to get her shoots right as compared to the actual day of competition. Sure, she was usually hard on herself during practice as she aimed for a perfect score most of the time and couldn't forgive herself if she missed the bullseye. But the difference between practice and competition was that she could always correct herself after making mistakes during practice; whereas in competitions, scores for each end would be publicly known to the audience and there was little chance to pull up her scores if she flunked the first few ends badly. She remembered having a nervous breakdown on her first team competition, resulting her to aim incorrectly and miss the target. The subsequent shoots got slightly better but she could not stop her hands from trembling after realising that she was pulling her team down.

Sasha closed her eyes and took in deep breaths to calm herself down. She could do it, she mentally told herself. She must bring home a medal.

After everyone was lined up in his or her position, the announcer gave an overview of how the whole competition would like and some instructions and safety rules to follow. With a blow of a whistle, the first round officially started. For each end, archers were supposed to shoot three arrows within two minutes. Sasha grabbed an arrow and attached it to her bow. Then, she got into her shooting stance and aimed her arrow at the first target. While the other players had started shooting, Sasha couldn't bring herself to let go of her bowstring. The trembling had come back again.

"Calm down, Sasha. It's not the time to be like this," she muttered softly to herself. _Shoot, come on. Shoot!_

'Snap!'

Before she knew what was happening, her fingers that were holding onto the nocking point slipped and the arrow flew. Dumbfounded, Sasha's jaw dropped as she watched her arrow glide to the ground after flying a few metres away from her. Her panic increased tenfold. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she could hear someone from the audience jeering. Without further ado, she quickly reached out for her second arrow to save herself from embarrassment. However, her hands fumbled with the arrow as she took it out from her arrow holder, causing the arrow to drop on the ground. Sasha stooped down to pick up the arrow and got into her shooting stance again.

Cold sweat glistened on her furrowed brows as she tried her best to concentrate on the target again with her trembling hands clasped tightly onto her bow and the nock. She was left with a minute and ten seconds to shoot her remaining two arrows. She had to stop stalling or else, she really couldn't catch up with the others after this end.

 _Now!_

Sasha let go of the bowstring and watched her arrow flew forward rapidly. This time, it hit the target but it landed on the 5th ring, which was the blue range. Sasha squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head to clear whatever troubling thoughts she had. She had no time to feel relief or disappointed. She had one more last arrow to shoot to raise her score.

"Sasha! Don't give up, yeah! It doesn't matter if you win or lose. Papa will always love ya!"

 _Papa?_

If her ears weren't playing tricks on her, that was really her father's voice. She was sure of it.

Sasha turned around and scanned the crowd of audience behind her to search for her father's figure. She had definitely heard him. There was no way she would mistake her father's voice.

"Sasha! Shhoooootttt that ahhh-roooow!"

Right. She had no time to search for her father when time was running out. His voice was enough to tell her that he was right here with her, watching her and supporting her. She swore that she did not tell him anything about this tournament because she did not want him to travel a long distance just to watch something that wasn't very important. Hence, she was very surprised that he had known about her special day and had even come all the way to the city to watch her shoot some arrows. She let out a soft laugh and raised her thumb up in the air. If her father was among the audience, he would definitely see her physical assurance.

Turning her attention back to the last target, Sasha picked up another arrow and hooked it on the nocking point. She had less than thirty seconds left to shoot this last arrow. She inhaled deeply again and withdrew the bowstring.

It was then she felt a gush of heat coursing through the veins of her arms and feet. Her legs no longer felt heavy. Neither were her arms. They felt as if they were too ready to take flight if she were to jump off a cliff right at this moment. Her heart pounded so hard and rapidly against her chest that she could literally hear her pulse inside her ears. Her eyes widened with a deep frown as she focused on the third target. Since when had she last felt this way? That sudden gush of intense confidence and adrenaline...

" _Papa, look. I caught a boar. All by myself!"_

" _Papa, I am not going to stay like this for the rest of my life. I am going to join the military."_

" _I am a hunter who serves my village. Not a farmer, not a refugee. I'm sorry if I couldn't live up to your expectation… You may see me as a failure now, but one day when I return, I will show you that my decision is never wrong."_

'Snap!'

" _Say this exact same thing to me when you return. Not as a pathetic coward like you are now, but as a respectable soldier. A real hunter whom everyone looks up to, a hunter who fights from freedom… that was what I have been raising you to be."_

Sasha's arms fell to her side as she stared at the spot where her arrow had landed. Her eyes welled up once more and her nose began stinging in pain. She stumbled backwards but quickly regained her posture when she felt someone gently hold her by her arm to prevent her from falling.

"Oh my god, oh my…" her voice quivered as she looked at her last target again in surprise.

She did it.

She earned nine points for landing within the yellow range, close to the _bullseye_.

* * *

 **Wow! It has been a year since this story was first posted! Honestly, when writing this story, I didn't think I would be so focused on writing this continuously for a year** **without giving it up or starting a new fic** **(but I admit that I did procrastinate because of schoolwork).**

 **Just some update on what I am currently working on and some plans I have for this story:**

 **1) This won't be a 15- or 20-chapter fanfic anymore. I kept thinking that I will complete this story in less than 20 chapters. But guess what? I am currently writing Chapter 21 (I always write a few chapters ahead) and it is nowhere near the ending.**

 **2) I have already settled on the pairings. Some are not evident as of now but they will be gradually built over the subsequent chapters.**

 **3) Levi has his reasons for being late in informing Sasha about the new changes :)**

 **I would like to thank** _Hope_ **and** _Xiumin Snape_ **for reviewing the previous chapter. Xuimin Snape, I'm so glad that you enjoyed the little humour too! Although I was the one who wrote that, I still found it funny each time I read it and I couldn't believe that I came up with such jokes. XD**

 **Preview of Chapter 15:**

 _"More than just 'even cooler'," he stated with a gentle smile. "You are pretty… because you are yourself."_

 _Then, he dropped his hand to his side and lowered his gaze to the parchment paper before him. His eyes softened once more as he looked tenderly at his own sketch._

 _"What I see in your eyes, they are blazing with a hunter's spirit and resolve. They are beautiful." He gazed up at her again with a soft sigh. "Really beautiful, Alexandra."_

 **Till next time!**


	15. Chapter 15

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **15**

" _Sasha, do you know…?"_

 _The brunette lowered her bow and glanced down at the man sitting cross-legged on the grass with a small rectangular wooden plank in front of him. Looking down at the parchment paper attached to the plank before his eyes, his right hand that had a tiny black rock held between his fingers continued to move in a circular motion against the paper as if he was sketching something unbeknownst to her. To her knowledge, he was never the artistic type. Or rather, he did not seem like a person who would be patient enough to sit down and draw whatever scene in front of him. He would rather throw away the parchment paper and joined the others for some fun._

" _What?" she responded in a curious voice._

 _Still not looking at her, he muttered casually in reply, "You look really different. Very, very different when you hold the bow."_

 _Thinking that he was trying to hint something mean to her, she frowned and tightened her grip around her bow. It was finally the day when they could hang out with each other. She could not remember how long it has been since he had asked her to take him on a hunting trip. The animosity between them had finally subsided although she could not guarantee that the misunderstanding between them had been cleared. After so many days of not speaking to each other,_ _was he 'unknowingly' trying to ruin her mood just like before?_

" _What is that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?" she asked in a curt voice, not wanting to beat around the bush. She had learnt from her past mistake - not getting straight to the point with this chap would only make her head turn in circles._

" _No! Why would I? What I mean is that you… err… you… look… pr-pretty…"_

 _She tilted her head slightly to her side and kept her silence, not believing a word he had just uttered. He wasn't even looking at her and she wondered what kind of scenery he was drawing that had him so focused on it. He was probably babbling some nonsense and praising his own art piece or whatever he was drawing under the hot blazing sun. She still couldn't believe this man. After telling her that he wanted to go on a hunting trip, all he did during this trip was just drawing, and drawing, and drawing. He did nothing but just sat on the grass next to the tall bushes and held onto his wooden plank while she ran around with her bow and arrow trying to catch some rabbits. If she wasn't mad about his sudden change of 'hunting plans', she did not know how else she should be feeling._

 _Noticing that she was not saying anything, the man looked up and gazed into her brown eyes. His eyes softened as the corners of his lips rose. She bet that he had no idea how the curve on his lips could make the world stop around him._

" _When you hold the bow, you look very pretty," he said._

 _She cleared her throat and tucked her loose fringe behind her ear, feeling extremely awkward after hearing him say that. She wasn't very pretty, she knew it. She was just an average looking person who was taller than most of the girls in her squad and also spotted a messy ponytail. The only special ability she had, and possibly proud of, was the ability to maintain her weight despite having a terrible eating habit that had always gotten her into trouble. Even so, being called pretty by a man made her have butterflies in her stomach._

" _So, at other times, I'm not?"_

" _Uh…"_

 _He looked speechlessly at her for a moment before averting his gaze away from her. He appeared to be thinking hard, perhaps trying to find the right words to say to her. At least, he was beginning to understand women a little. In the past, he would have blurted out his honest opinion and unknowingly hurt the feelings of others. Even after he had hurt them, he still did not get what had gone wrong._

 _Her mouth twitched as she tried to fight a smile upon seeing him trying so hard not to offend her. Instead, she put on a frown again and pretended to stay a little angry with him._

" _I shall take this as a yes then?"_

" _What? No! I mean, uh, you…" He let out a soft groan as he let his hand ran through his hair in frustration. "I don't know how to say!"_

 _She gasped, "Is it so bad that you don't know what to say to me?!"_

" _No!"_

" _Then?"_

" _It's like… Can I not say?"_

 _He looked up at her again with a forced smile and nodded his head, trying to prompt her to say 'yes' to his question. Since when did he become so cheeky?_

 _She shook her head and replied firmly, "No, I want to know."_

" _Hmm…" His smile dropped. "I don't know how to explain."_

" _I didn't know that you need an explanation for a yes-no question, my dear friend."_

" _Oh-oh, I know. You, my dear friend, are at this level of coolness," he interjected while holding his black-stained hand up towards her. He placed his thumb and index finger together and slowly distanced them like a metre measuring the height of something. "Cool Sasha."_

" _Do you mean that right now I-"_

" _But when you pick up your bow, you are here," he interrupted her. This time, he raised his finger-metre even higher that it formed a slightly curved 'L' shape._

" _Even cooler Sasha?"_

" _More than just 'even cooler'," he stated with a gentle smile. "You are pretty… because you are yourself."_

 _Then, he dropped his hand to his side and lowered his gaze to the parchment paper before him. His eyes softened once more as he looked tenderly at his own sketch._

" _What I see in your eyes, they are blazing with a hunter's spirit and resolve. They are beautiful." He gazed up at her again with a soft sigh. "Really beautiful, Alexandra."_

A hunter's spirit and resolve, she wanted to feel it. Her hands were still tingling with excitement as she held on her last arrow. Her final arrow and final shot of Round One.

Sasha pulled back her bowstring and aimed at her last target. Without hesitation, she let go of the bowstring and watched her last arrow cut through the cold air and land on the target. With that, Round One had finally come to the end. Sasha put her bow down on the ground and waited for the scores of each player to be tabulated on the huge electronic scoreboard. Even though she wasn't one of the top five, she was relieved to be able to climb up the ranks. From the fourth last place to the eleventh place from the top by the ninth end.

Just then, three loud whistling sounds were heard and the scores were updated on the scoreboard. Sasha scanned through the list of names and found her name still on eleventh place. Well, at least she didn't drop in rank.

"Well done, Miss Sasha! You have 245 points!" a player next to her exclaimed loudly.

The brunette turned to look at the player next to her and smiled kindly. "Thank you. You too!"

As she had not interacted with any of the players since the start of the tournament, Sasha thought that she should at least make some friends here before they leave the arena together. After all, these people shared the same interest and hobby as her so it would be great to get to know each other more. Her eyes fell onto the player's name tag. Almost immediately, her eyes widened in surprise.

 _Pieck Jung_. Sasha tilted her head upwards and stared at the first name at the top of the scoreboard. All these while, the best player had been standing right next to her. The best player with a near perfect score of 268 points! Sasha gasped and turned to look at her leading opponent on the field. She knew that the person next to her was good, consistently hitting the yellow zone on the target. But she had no idea who the person was. Furthermore, Pieck was the player who had reached out to Sasha earlier to prevent her from falling down after her third shot.

"Congratulations for coming in first place, Miss Jung!" she said excitedly, looking rather amazed by the fact that she was standing next to a very good player. Rather than seeing her as an opponent, Sasha instantly looked up to her like she was a role model, totally forgetting that her opponent would be the one clinching a gold medal but not Sasha.

"Thank you," the lady chuckled. "Let's retrieved our arrows and grab some refreshment before Round Two starts, shall we?"

Sasha nodded and went to collect her arrows with the kind lady. While queuing for some drinks at the refreshment booth outside the stadium, Sasha and Pieck got to know each other a little. Sasha found out that Pieck was a postgraduate student, majoring in business administration from another college. Despite her small build, Pieck was actually a track and field athlete like Sasha back in high school. But she later joined the archery club when she entered college. She quitted track and field in her third year of high school because of one unfortunate incident; she had broken her ankle from a road accident and could not participate in strenuous activities even after rehabilitation. However, Pieck did not want to give up sports. In fact, she loved getting active and going to competitions to test her limits. Hence, she joined archery out of curiosity, initially thinking that it was fun even though she would not be running and jumping around like before. Who knew that she would fall in love with this sport in seconds after shooting her first arrow.

To Sasha, Pieck seemed like a nice and sweet person. After knowing that it was Sasha's first time taking part in a solo competition, the older lady gave her words of encouragement. She also told her that she was equally nervous when she had first taken part in a solo competition a few years ago so she could totally understand Sasha's feelings. After getting their chilled drinks in cups, Pieck was called out by another participant who was wearing the same shirt design as her.

"I'm sorry, Sasha. Porc is calling me. See you after the break," the older lady said with a gentle smile before making her way towards that male participant.

As soon as Sasha was alone, she heard a familiar voice calling her name. In response, Sasha turned around and saw her father climbing down the stairs and headings towards her. The sides of Sasha's lips curled up as she walked towards her father with the cup of chilled isotonic drink in her hand.

"Papa!" she greeted him happily as she extended and wrapped her free arm around his neck. Then, she pulled herself away and looked up, giving her father a toothy grin. "I knew it was you just now!"

Her father tousled Sasha's hair and chuckled, "I'm glad that my lil' girl could hear my voice. I was so worried."

"Thank you, Papa." Sasha lowered her gaze as her smile began to falter. "For coming all the way here and giving me your support… even when I screwed up out there… Papa, I want to thank you for all these. If not for you, I don't know if I am able to pick myself up."

Sasha lowered her head and let out a soft awkward laugh. "I must be pathetic out there. So embarrassing."

"What are you talkin' about, Sasha? Who's pathetic?" she heard her father's voice harden.

Sasha slowly glanced up and noticed her father staring at her with a deep frown. Without warning, he flicked her forehead with his finger, earning a soft surprised yelp from Sasha. His daughter immediately backed away and covered her forehead with her free hand, hissing in discomfort.

"Don't ever think like that. No one's pathetic," her father chided. "Ye're just nervous at first. But you overcame it after that. That's not pathetic, Sasha."

"That's because Pa-"

"That's because you have the strength to overcome yer nervousness," her father interrupted her. "I did nothing. All I did was tellin' you that it didn't matter if you win or lose."

Biting her lower lip, Sasha briefly glanced at her father before lowering her head again.

"Always focus on the target, Sasha. If you keep lookin' back, it won't do you any good," he continued in a firm voice. "The only opponent ye're fightin' isn't those players out there in the field. It's you. The opponent is yerself."

Sasha's father then softened the tense folds between his brows and gently patted Sasha's head. He continued, "Look back once but take as many steps as we can forward. Mama lived by this motto, do ya know?"

Still covering her forehead, Sasha shook her head. It was her first time hearing about her mother's life motto. Well, it wasn't all the time her father would talk about her mother. When Sasha was younger, she would ask her father about her mother. Although her father would share a little about her, his eyes would become so lifeless and sad whenever he talked about her. Since then, Sasha had seldom brought up her mother in front of him.

"Thanks," Sasha muttered softly and looked up at her father again, plastering a small smile on her face. "I will do my best next round. Don't worry about me, Papa. Even if I fall, I will remember your words. Mama's words."

"You better."

Sasha chuckled and skipped to her father's side. It had been a year since she had last seen him and he hadn't changed much. She took his callused hand and curled her fingers between his. His hands were hard, covered with thick shiny callus on the hams of his hands. Though she had never told her father before, she liked holding his hand since she was little and the fact that it was rough and had tiny scars reminded her that she was living a happy life because of her father's hard work. That was why she chose to leave her hometown in hope to get a degree and find a good job so that she could repay what her father had given her. She couldn't ask for more than what she had received. If she could earn more money, she would want to give her father a better life like living in a big house near the city area and eating good food every day. She squeezed his hand a little tighter and held it up. She opened his palm and inserted her cup between his thumb and fingers.

"For you, Papa. I haven't taken a sip yet."

"No, thanks. I'm okay. You can have it."

"I'm not thirsty. I just drank a lot of water earlier," Sasha made an excuse as she rubbed her belly. "My stomach is bloated with water."

Her father's eyes widened and he mused sarcastically, "Oh, I'm surprised. My lil' girl can feel bloated!"

"Hey, that's mean! Of course, I can!" Sasha pouted. "If I don't, I really need a doctor!"

Sasha's father laughed. He accepted her offer and drank a sip of that chilled drink. Sasha beamed as she circled her palm around his arm.

She asked, "Papa, did Connie tell you about this tournament?"

"Hm, yeah. He told me when he returned home last week," he replied. Then, he turned to look at Sasha with a frown. "I can't believe my lil' girl kept this from me."

"I'm sorry! I thought that you were busy… But anyway, why didn't you tell me that you were coming here? I could have picked you up, you know!"

"No," he responded gruffly, shaking his head. "You kept this from me. So, I kept this from you. Fair treatment."

Sasha raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "What?!"

Her father narrowed his eyes at her. However, the side of his lips twitched, totally giving away how hard he was trying to suppress a laugh after seeing the bewildered look on his daughter's face.

"Just kiddin', Sasha. I just wanted to give ya a surprise!"

"Oh my gosh, Papa!" Sasha groaned and shook her head. "I don't know what to say to you now! I'm sorry for keeping this from you, okay!"

"So, did I surprise you?"

"Yes, yes, you did! I was very, very surprised when I heard you shouting out to me," Sasha acquiesced with a laugh, momentarily shifting her gaze from her father to the stairs behind him.

Her laugh weakened as she stared at the person slowly descending the stairs. It was another _unexpected_ supporter.

-:-:-:-

" _My daughter is…"_

" _I'm sorry." Levi lowered his head as he handed a red hood and a broken bow to the bearded man. "These are what we have."_

 _With tears trickling down from his eyes, the man wrapped his arms around his daughter's belonging and pressed them against his chest. The two soldiers standing in front of him could only look down solemnly, feeling extremely terrible and lost._

" _Was she doin' her best till the very end?" the man asked the two soldiers in between sobs._

" _Yes, she was. Till the very end, she didn't give up," Levi said. "She was a respectable soldier. A valuable asset to the Survey Corps."_

" _Thank you, Corporal." The older man closed his teary eyes and nodded, hugging the hood and the broken bow tighter. "Thank you so much for takin' care of her all these years. Thank you for bringin' her belongings back home."_

 _Levi and his commander bowed and politely informed the man that they would be taking their leave back to the headquarters. They got on their horses and took the same route where they had come from. As soon as they stepped out of the village, the commander pulled the reins and the horse stopped galloping._

" _Hey, Levi!"_

 _Levi turned around as he pulled the horse reins as well. He saw his commander slowly head towards him with a concerned look. Knowing what his commander was going to say to him, he looked back to his front and tucked his hand into his pants' pocket._

" _Don't ask. I'm okay," he muttered._

" _At least you could have kept that bow, Levi."_

" _Why would I? It is better to send her belongings back to her family. We have always been doing this since a long time ago."_

" _Is this really okay for you?"_

 _No, of course not. He was not okay with all these. He had nothing left. He did not have anything sentimental that could make him remember her, except for the tattered blood-stained thing inside his pocket. In fact, he did not have to have those things to remember her. His shattered heart was already enough to bring back those haunting memories of her._

 _He tightened his grip around the reins and said monotonously, "Hange, stop talking. We got many other things to do."_

" _It isn't really okay, right?" his commander continued in a slight demanding tone. "Right, right, right?"_

" _Ugh, annoying!"_

" _Because, Levi, you like-"_

 _Levi frowned and turned to look at his commander with a pair of narrowed eyes. He took out his hand from his pocket and held up the small bloodied badge in front of his commander's face. Seeing his commander fall silent at the sight of the badge that was once belonged to the dead soldier, Levi lowered his hand and put the badge back into his pocket._

" _Is this enough?" he asked in a low voice._

" _Her uniform badge…"_

" _This is the only proof I have for myself," Levi interjected as he looked up at the sky for the first time ever since the last battle had ended._

 _He witnessed an eagle fly across the sky with its wings spread wide before its silhouette disappeared behind the forest canopy. Inhaling deeply, he lowered his head and pressed his palm against his eyes which were beginning to sting against his will._

 _Her badge was more than just a proof that she was once alive. It was a proof that she was not meant to be caged. A proof that he was not someone whom everyone had made him out to be._

 _A proof that he had come to her too late… as always._

It did not take him too long to recognise the old, well-built man next to Sasha. As compared to the last time he had seen Sasha's father a long time ago, the current figure next to Sasha looked so much older and tired. He remembered Sasha telling him on her first day of work that she wanted to take on a part-time job because she did not want to burden her father with her school fees and other living expenses. Seeing this scene before his eyes, he could understand why she was working very hard and grabbing every opportunity as if her life was dependent on it (although he could not say that he approved of her constant splurging on food). It was a no-brainer to know how the drastic change of their convenience store would have affected her. She did not say anything to him, as always. However, he knew that she was feeling terrible inside.

As he walked down the stairs, he could hear the sound of her laughter becoming clearer. But it soon died when their eyes met. Noticing his presence, her father turned to look at him as well, but with a curious stare. Levi continued walking down till he reached the ground level where the father and daughter were.

"Levi! Why are you here?" the brunette exclaimed in surprise after regaining her composure. "What about the store?"

"Hannah and Franz are handling it," he answered her.

Sasha continued asking him, "So, what are you doing here? Are you here to watch the archery tournament?"

"What else would I be here for, Braus?" he deadpanned.

Sasha grinned sheepishly at his comment, realising that she had just asked a stupid question. Of course, Levi had come to watch the archery tournament. She had told him about the tournament and took leaves from work on Friday and Saturday just in case she could make it into the quarterfinals and semifinals. Again, she did not expect him to turn up like the others. As much as she would like to think that he was here to give her support, there could be another reason why he had left work and come all the way here. What if that hunter friend of his was also taking part in this tournament? Maybe that friend was a student too.

"I bought some waffles for you on the way here," Levi said as he took out a small brown paper bag from his sling bag and handed it to her. "Guess that you would get hungry after a match."

"Th-thank you."

Sasha kindly accepted the waffles and peeped inside the paper bag. The waffles were still warm and the aroma was starting to make her stomach rumble. Smiling, she looked up at Levi again. Perhaps she was wrong, and it might sound prideful to think that her store manager had taken leave to come to watch her when she did not ask for it.

"How do you know it will be held here?" she asked him curiously.

"I searched it up on the internet."

"I see," Sasha muttered. "Thanks for coming by the way."

She then turned to her father who was studying Levi from head to toe, and nudged his arm to indirectly tell him to stop looking at Levi like he was a suspicious person. Because she was so caught up with surprises, she had totally forgotten to introduce Levi to her father.

"Papa, this is Levi. He is my store manager," she said to her father.

Her father's shoulders stiffened for a brief moment as he continued to stare at Levi with a small frown. "Levi?"

"Yup, his name is Levi. C'mon, say hi to him," Sasha prompted, feeling a little weird that her father looked so awkward and astonished all of a sudden. _He couldn't have known him, could he?_

The older man cleared his throat and grinned widely at Levi as he extended his arm towards him and greeted normally, "Ah, hello, Levi! I'm her father. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for takin' care of her although she can be quite a handful during work."

Levi held his extended hand and gave it a light shake. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr Braus. Your daughter is a hard worker and is very meticulous. We are happy to have her working with us for a year now."

Her father smiled in relief. Turning to his daughter, he said to her, "You've got a very nice manager, Sasha. For him to come all the way here to give you support, it's so thoughtful of him!"

Sasha chuckled weakly with a small blush. Pulling out a waffle from the paper bag, she started digging in quickly. The next round was going to start soon so she had to quickly finish them before it started. She wasn't planning to leave her waffles till the end of the next round as they would not taste good after they were cooled. While she was stuffing herself with the waffles, her father informed her that he would be heading back to the audience as Connie and his parents were there. Again, much to her surprise, she didn't expect Connie to turn up too because of his match. Hearing that he did made her happy as well.

When her father left, Sasha was thinking to excuse herself as well as she saw the other participants climbing up the stairs, probably heading back to the waiting area to prepare themselves for the next round. However, before she could tell Levi that she had to go, he fished out a business card from the pocket of his trousers and held it in front of her. Sasha inched forward to have a good look at the words written on the card, and her eyes widened after seeing the person's name printed on it.

"Dr Hange?"

"Yes, Hange. She dropped this, remember? You can have it," Levi answered as he motioned her to take the card.

She hesitantly took the card, feeling puzzled as to why he was handing the business card to her out of the blue. Wasn't he the one who got a little angry when Hange had handed her this card? As she did not dare to ask him why he had given her the card, she silently nodded to his question and inserted the card into her pocket.

"I have looked up her website. Apparently, she needs a student research assistant to help her with some of her projects and write-ups," Levi pointed out. "There's money to be earned after each completion of tasks if I read the description properly. You may want to consider taking on these assignments and projects with Hange. I read that the timing is flexible too as long as you submit the assignments to her by the deadline."

"Oh, okay…"

Sasha was speechless. Was he indirectly telling her to find other means to earn more money because he couldn't help her to increase the number of shifts she could work? Well, it was not like she had expected him to be able to convince the higher-ups to increase the number of workers working in the store during the day either. Rules are rules. There was no way Levi could change them. Actually, she did search for some other part-time jobs on the internet but she had not decided on what to do yet. She was thinking to do so after she had received her new timetable for the upcoming semester and her new working shift timings. This way, she could effectively plan out her weekly schedule to avoid unnecessary clashes.

After listening to Levi's recommendation, she felt that it wouldn't be so bad to help Hange out with her research. After all, there would be a sum of money to be earned. Hey, that was a good deal! Being paid to do assignments? Why not?

With a small smile, she spoke, "Thank you for telling me. I will check her website when I get back to my dorm."

"Don't mention it. With Hange, I'm sure that you will be okay," he assured confidently which, in turn, confused Sasha even more.

As far as she could remember that night at Hange's office, the phone call between Hange and Levi did not seem like they were on friendly terms. For Levi to tell her that she would be fine under Hange, would that mean that Levi actually trusted the researcher? Come to think of it logically, Hange wouldn't lie about the job and the salary on her website, right? So, of course, her information would be reliable to a certain extent. Since it appeared that Levi trusted Hange, she guessed that there would be no harm in giving this job a try first.

"Sasha?" a female voice chimed in, causing both Levi and the said girl to turn to the flight of stairs where a lady was looking down at them over the railings of the second floor.

Sasha's eyes brightened as she waved to the lady and called out to her, "Oh! Hi, Pieck!"

Pieck waved back and informed, "Sorry to interrupt you guys, but the break is going to be over soon."

Sasha nodded, acknowledging her words. Turning to Levi again, she said, "I better get going now. See you later."

The man let out a soft 'hn' as he watched her run up the stairs while squeezing the remaining waffle into her mouth. The way her cheeks became bloated reminded him of hamsters desperately stuffing food into the 'pockets' inside their mouth. While trying to stifle a laugh, he looked away and casually smirked to himself.

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"Ngooo! Mai ma-ey-ear!"

"I don't understand what you are saying, Sasha. Swallow first..."

After the sound of the girls' footsteps was no longer heard, Levi climbed up the stairs as well. Despite telling Sasha to approach Hange, he still couldn't believe himself for doing so. He had nothing against Hange in the first place. But the thought of himself actually 'sending' Sasha to Hange for the _second_ time irked him a lot. It broke his conscience. Ever since she disappeared from her duty, he vowed not to repeat the same mistake again. That girl needed freedom, like a bird that wasn't meant to be caged. If he hadn't let his feelings get the better of him and interfered too much previously, would things go slightly differently?

He pushed open one of the doors lined up along the walkway and entered the stadium to join the other audience. Suddenly, he felt a light push on his shoulder as a girl with a red scarf and a few bottles of mineral water in her arms ran past him. Briefly turning to him as she halted, the girl lowered her head and apologised for bumping into him. When she looked up getting ready to turn away to join the crowd ahead, the girl froze. Her wide surprised eyes wavered and her arms around the bottles tightened under his unreadable gaze. Levi adjusted the strap of his sling bag on his shoulder awkwardly, mentally groaning at how uncomfortable that girl's stare was.

"Sorry, do you know me?" he asked quizzically.

By the look she was giving him, she obviously did. If she was born like him, there was no doubt that she could recognise him in an instant although it took him quite a while to recognise Sasha, Oluo, and even Connie when he had met them for the first time. It was hard to explain how he could recognise people, but he had an uncanny feeling when he saw their faces. It felt like he had known them for the longest time ever, but he could not confirm who they were until they had told him their names and also until he had gotten to know their personalities. Everything was strange from the start. Initially, he thought that everything that had once happened was an illusion, a crazy imagination that was so highly impossible to happen. However, the first time he had opened the door to the basement with his young uncle and a female teen was the day he realised that he was indeed living in a loop. A very different loop as before. A loop without titans; a loop without constant wars between humans; a loop in which he got a chance to live like a normal human being as a kid; a loop in which he could clearly see how time had changed the world, including the people around him. Whatever happened a few thousand years ago was real… only to those who could remember the events.

"No, I don't know you," the girl with the red scarf muttered in a soft voice as she looked away with furrowed eyebrows.

With that quick reply, the girl turned away and hurriedly walked towards a group of youngsters sitting on the first row of seats. Levi saw a dark brown haired male stand up from his seat and approach the girl to take a bottle of water from her. The pair had a brief conversation with each other before the girl walked to the other end of the row to hand a bottle to a blonde male who was reading a book. On the other hand, the brown-haired male walked over to the metal barricade and rested his arms on it, staring at something near the entrance with a smile. Levi followed his line of sight and found himself also staring at the participants in the waiting area. There he saw Sasha and Pieck chatting with each other while waiting for their turns to let the organisers check their equipment.

 _So, they have already met…_

Levi shifted his gaze back to the young male at the barricade. This time, that male was staring back at him but only for a brief moment as that male turned his head away and looked at the waiting area again.

 _No doubt about it. This is a loop after all._

Of course, he had never asked himself the _if_ question. It was a matter of _when_.

* * *

 **Hi! I'm back with an early update. Thanks for reading this chapter! Pieck and Porco finally took the stage~ As of now, they are just minor characters who won't have any impact on the story... yet. And yay, Levi and Mikasa got to interact with each other _again_ although their interaction was very brief.**

 **I would like to apologise if Mr Braus' way of speaking was unnatural. I have tried googling for slang words to fit the sentences and these were what I got. Please let me know if there are errors! I will change them immediately. Thank you.**

 **Next, I would also like to thank** _laurita fernadez_ **for reviewing the previous chapter.**

 **Preview of Chapter 16:**

 _Here lies the remains of  
_ Aoife Klein  
 _Daughter of Samoel Klein and Alexandra Ackerman_

 **See you again in the next chapter!**


	16. Chapter 16

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **16**

"Hey there, guys. Welcome back to my channel. Guess where I am now? Yup, you're right! I'm back in my hometown! Man, the bus trip is sure tiring. I have been sitting here for hours and slept for awhile. Oh, and guess who is sitting right next to me? Ta-da!"

The camcorder suddenly appeared in front of Sasha's face, startling the brunette who was beginning to doze off while trying to keep herself awake by raising her brows to keep her upper eyelids open throughout the bus ride. Of course, raising her brows could not work against her heavy eyelids. Noticing her large face on the display screen of the camcorder, her tired eyes widened in shock and she immediately cringed.

Looked away in embarrassment, Sasha cried exasperatedly, "What is this, Connie?! Are you filming me? I look so ugly!"

"Aw, come on. Don't be shy. Say hi to my viewers," Connie said with a laugh.

"What?" Sasha slowly glanced at the camcorder in puzzlement. Seeing that her friend was still filming her, she covered the lens and whined, "Oh my god. No, please! What is this for, Connie?"

Connie brought his camcorder away from her hand and held it further away from him so the camcorder could capture him and Sasha within the frame. He grinned playfully at the camcorder and pointed at Sasha.

"Meet my best friend, Sasha. You know, the archer whom I was talking about a few days ago. You guys have watched the archery competition videos. I'm sorry that I didn't have the chance to zoom in her face when she went up the podium."

"What do you mean by they watched?" Sasha asked with a hint of anxiety in her voice, shaking Connie's arm to prompt him to stop filming her.

"Wasn't she amazing? Winning third place isn't easy, you know! Especially for inter-school competitions with all the pros!"

Sasha crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at the camcorder. Finally, she got what Connie was doing. She had seen this type of videos before. Was this called vlog? She usually had no interest in this type of videos because she did not see what was so interesting about other people's lives. Sometimes, she and her roommates would watch travel vlogs to learn about new places and cultures. Food vlogs were also not bad, but Sasha would rather experience eating the food herself. Watching people eat was already torturous to her stomach. Anyway, putting that aside, she was surprised to see Connie making his own vlogs. She wondered when he had started this hobby.

"Hi, guys. I'm Sasha Braus," Sasha awkwardly introduced herself in a soft voice while covering her lower face shyly with both hands. "It's a pleasure to have an opportunity to be in Connie's video. Please subscribe to my friend and give him all your love and support."

Connie laughed and winked at the camcorder. "Yup, you have heard her!"

Then, Connie turned to Sasha and continued, "Hey, Sasha. Please share how you feel about this whole tournament and your success. I received some comments telling me that they would love to see you in my future videos and talk about archery. Seems like you have gained some fans through my videos!"

"Geez. How can it be?" Sasha looked at the camcorder in disbelief as if she was really facing the viewers. "Seriously, I'm not really good."

Connie brought his camcorder towards him and whispered, "Sasha's lying."

"Hey! I'm not, alright!" Sasha leant closer to Connie so that she could be in the frame with him. "I don't know if you guys knew already. I failed my first few shots. But I was lucky to be able to make it through the quarterfinals after that. Usually, it is hard to catch up with others if we flunk so badly for a few ends. So, I was very lucky to clear the first stage."

"Says the person who came in third place in the finals."

Indeed, she had done quite well for her second round on the first day and therefore entered the quarterfinals. As she moved up the ranks for each round, she felt lucky to be slightly above the cut-off benchmark so that she could proceed on to the semifinals, then to the finals. What she didn't expect herself to get at the end was a bronze medal although she was initially desperate to clinch an award. She felt so relieved and elated when her name was announced as the second runner-up. Of course, Pieck had come in first place while another female participant had come in second place with a point lower than Pieck. As compared to those two players, Sasha was actually seven points away from them. She had barely overtaken another player during her last end by two points, hence allowing her to scrape through and move up by a position. Everything was pure luck. If not for the triple perfect shots at the last end, she would not have overtaken that player. After rounding up the game, her score was the third highest and that was how she got the bronze medal after three days of the tournament. It felt like a dream to Sasha, not believing that she had actually won third place. Her dream had come true and she wished that she could take part in more tournaments like this in the future. Her aim was to be as good as Pieck!

After the tournament, the archery club committee members held a small pizza party for the Ace who had come in second place in the recurve male category, Sasha, and the winning team who had also come in second place. As she was the only freshman who represented the club in a solo competition and also won a medal, she received lots of praise from her seniors and was promised to be given future opportunities to take part in other competitions. Even that annoying senior, Brett, had congratulated her sincerely with her name properly pronounced.

When she returned to work the next day, Hannah and Franz proposed to Levi that they could hold a food party after work to congratulate Sasha. Since the new schedule was out, they were planning to have the party once the night shift workers officially started work. However, Sasha had to return back to her hometown for a week so the party was postponed. Speaking about her new schedule, it was just as expected; she was given the Saturday and Sunday slots. Despite being reluctant, she was prepared to give up her relaxation time on Sundays and find another job which she could work during weekday nights. She had looked up Hange's website and found out more about the research assistant job. The pay was not bad for each assignment so she didn't mind applying for it. However, she could not just rely on just one application, right? What if the other students had applied for it and gotten accepted?

Well, she could do her job hunting another time. After all, she wanted to have some fun and take a break in the countryside after being away for a year.

As for Connie, his team got into the finals and won second place too! According to him, his seniors had won third place in the previous tournaments. So, it was truly the happiest moment for the soccer club. Like the archery club, the soccer club had a party. It was held at a karaoke outlet and one of the seniors 'smuggled' mugs of beers into the room to let his juniors have a fair share of fun and merrymaking. Luckily for them, they were not caught for doing so.

So, after an exciting and tiring weekend, Sasha and Connie decided to return to their hometown together with their parents. There were so many things Sasha wanted to do when she reached home. As she had promised her father, she wanted to visit her mother. Then, she wanted to shop around and try all sorts of dishes that she had missed. Since she had just gotten her salary, she could spend a bit more on food and treat her father!

"Oh, we have arrived!" Connie suddenly piped up, breaking Sasha's train of thoughts.

Sasha glanced out of the window and smiled. Indeed, they were finally at the depot which was within the walking distances from their residential district. Grabbing their luggage, the passengers alighted the bus. As the Springers lived slightly further down the district, they decided to board another bus that would conveniently take them there since they had heavy luggage. On the other hand, Sasha and her father walked home. Upon reaching their tiny apartment, Sasha helped her father to unpack his luggage and soaked his worn clothes in a pill of warm water. She was going to wash his clothes, including hers, after their dinner.

Looking at the house clock on the wall, it was already 3 pm. A few hours before dinner time. Seeing her father sitting lazily on his favourite couch, doing nothing but staring into space, Sasha felt like taking him out for a walk before settling down at any eating place near their district. She wanted to spend some time with him since he would be working the very next day.

Sasha walked over to the living room and sat next to her father. Knowing that she wanted to speak to him, he turned his head and stared blankly at her.

"Papa?"

"Yes?"

"Since we still have some time, do you want to go out with me?" Sasha asked with a small smile, hoping that her father would say yes.

Pushing himself up against the backrest to straighten his back, her father smiled at her and said, "Sure. Where d'ya wanna go?"

Out of all the places she wanted to go, there was only one place that was ranked first in her 'must-visit' list. She felt guilty for not visiting that place for the longest time ever. The guilt weighed just as heavy as the guilt she harboured for her father. That place was the most precious place to her, other than her home, because of a person whom she had no memories of. And that was…

"I want to visit Mama."

-:-:-:-

Sasha had no memory of her mother. Ever since she had noticed that her classmates were frequently picked up by their mothers or grandparents after preschool hours, she had always wondered if she had a mother and grandparents just like her peers. She could not understand what it meant to have a mother, but all she had always known was that mothers were like a female 'papa' in the house. It did not feel strange to be under the care of a single parent, yet it felt strange to be different from other children. Holding hands with their mother and father each morning as they attended preschool, she dreamt of doing that. It was like a complete family, similar to a hand-drawn portrait of her classmate's family displayed on the wall of the classroom.

She had never met her grandparents before either. Her maternal grandparents passed away way before she was born. According to her father, they were killed in a road accident along with her mother's grandfather. Her mother was only a child back then with no close relatives, except for her strict grandmother. Her grandmother raised her up but later passed away due to an illness when her mother had just entered high school. As for Sasha's paternal grandparents, she had heard from her father that they were also dead because of illnesses too. Although her father did not explain much about how he had met her mother, he simply told her that they were two lost souls who had happened to meet one day, fall in love, get married, and give birth to a bubbly soul.

Sometimes, she felt that she was the cause of her mother's death. Her mother stopped breathing during her labour. No matter how many times the doctors had tried to resuscitate her, she could not make it out of the operation theatre alive, except for Sasha. Her father did not blame her for her mother's death. Instead, as she grew up gradually beginning to aware about her non-existing mother, he constantly told her that the fact that Sasha was alive was the proof that he and his wife did not make the wrong decision.

" _Mama has a weak body. We were advised by the doctors to abort you, but Mama didn't want to do that. Aft waitin' for four years, we could finally have a child. She hoped to hold you in her arms and name you aft her grandmother whom she loved a lot. You bein' alive is a blessin' to us. Ye're her gift so, o' course, I will treasure my lil' girl even when I die."_

Sasha was the only person her father had after her mother had passed away. Similarly, her father meant the whole world to her. He was a gift that her mother had left for Sasha while Sasha was a gift that she had given to her husband.

 _In Loving Memory of  
_ Chriselda Lisa Krause  
 _Beloved Daughter of Yves Krause and Aoife Klein  
_ _Loving Wife of Royce Braus and Mother of Baby Sasha  
_ _8th April 2810 - 26th July 2835_

Standing in front of her mother's grave with her father kneeling and praying silently next to her, Sasha cast her eyes down and watched the fresh pink and white carnations which she had offered to her mother swaying in the wind. When her father was done paying his respect, it was Sasha's turn to pay hers as well. Unlike her father, Sasha was more verbal; she preferred talking in front of her mother's gravestone because it would look as if she was having a conversation with her mother. She liked talking about various things that her mother had 'missed out' on.

"Mama, I'm back. I'm sorry that I couldn't visit you as often as I could before. I have somehow made it through my first year in university. I fared pretty well in my tests, so don't worry about me," Sasha said in an assuring voice. She took out her academic record for her first semester and held it in front of the gravestone. "See here. I got three B-pluses, and two Bs. My friend, Armin, helped me a lot before the tests so I could pull up my grades. Oh, I got an A for one of Professor Shadis' assignments this semester. I don't really like him because he is so scary, but his tutorials were really interesting."

Sasha kept her academic record in her backpack and took out her bronze medal. She added, "Recently, I took part in an archery tournament. And guess what? I won third place! Another good news, Connie and his soccer team won second place! This year is our lucky year, it seems!"

Then, she put her medal down and fished out her handphone from her pocket. She searched through the photos in her phone gallery and opened a photo that featured her and her group of friends. The photo was taken in the amusement park, right after they had played the bumper cars. She slowly introduced her friends to her mother, and also to her father who was listening and looking at the photo with a relieved smile.

"I see that you've made lots of good friends in school, Sasha," her father commented. "Your dorm mates are so kind. Taking care of you when you were sick... They're really wonderful."

"Yup!" Sasha beamed. She closed that photo and opened another photo that was taken during Levi's promotion party at a grilled meat restaurant. It was a photo of her coworkers holding up their beer mugs with Levi unintentional drinking pose and her holding up a glass of plain water. She started again, "These people are the seniors I am working with in a convenience store near my school. They are also very nice to me. This guy here next to me is my store manager. He took leave on the first day of that archery tournament and came over to support me!"

Her father smiled thinly and said, "Mr Levi, right?"

"Yes!" Sasha replied her father and kept her handphone. "So, Mama, as you can see, I am coping well with school and work. You don't have to worry about me not able to make good friends and being a lazy pig. I'm working hard every day!"

"Sasha."

Upon hearing her name, she turned to face her father. He placed his large hand on her shoulder and gave her a light squeeze.

"Mama is proud of you. I'm sure of it."

The corner of her lips curled. She hoped that he was right.

"You look like Mama," her father muttered in a soft voice. "Exactly like her when she was your age."

Sasha raised her eyebrows in curiosity and quizzed, "Do you mean the appearance?"

"Yes, and also the personality."

"Really?" Sasha smiled even wider. "I guess it's true that mothers and daughters are supposed to look somewhat alike then."

"Hmm… Mama had lots of suitors when she was your age."

"Aww, Mama must have been very pretty back then," Sasha chirped. "But she chose you in the end, Papa."

Her father laughed heartily, "Yes, yes."

Suddenly, he stopped laughing. He bent a little lower and stared hard at Sasha, causing her to gulp. Seeing that serious look on his face, she knew that her father had something important to tell her. She forced a weak smile and stared expectantly at him, urging him to say whatever on his mind quickly.

"So, how many boys?"

Sasha crooked an eyebrow at his question. She did not understand what he was trying to ask her.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talkin' about, Sasha."

Sasha stuck out her lower lip and shrugged. "I really don't know… Do you mean how many boy-friends I have?"

The older man looked surprised. But his surprised look soon replaced with a lopsided smile, and he nodded.

Sasha rubbed her chin and mentally counted the number of male friends she had in school. She wondered why her father was suddenly interested in her male friends when she had just spoken about them through her photo.

"I'm friends with quite a few… Maybe around five, including Connie." She paused for a moment. "I'm also friends with some of the boys from the archery club So, that makes seven. Should I count annoying Brett in? Oh, I am also friends with…"

"Not that, Sasha!"

"Then, what is it?" Sasha was puzzled.

"To put it simply, how many boys have ya dated?"

Oh… _Oh!_

Sasha blushed deep red and replied in a loud voice, "Your daughter has no dating experience! I swear to God… and to Mama!"

"Really?" the man wondered aloud. "No one has ever asked you out?"

Sasha shook her head. _Geez, Papa! Why are you asking this type of embarrassing question?_

Her father crossed his arms and muttered to himself, "Those boys are blind. My lil' girl is so cute. How can they not see how cute she is?"

"Let's be honest, I'm not cute…"

"When Mama was your age-"

"I know, she had many suitors. She was very pretty. I already get that," Sasha interrupted him in a dull voice. "Maybe I didn't receive most of her genes… Perhaps… I get more of Papa's?"

Her father cleared his throat and looked away. "I… I was al-also quite g-g-good lookin' back then, okay… If… If not, why would your Mama pi-p-pick me out of all suitors she had?"

Sasha giggled. Her father glanced at her with a frown.

"Not funny."

"I guess Mama fell in love with you because you were the most sincere and independent among all the other men out there," Sasha said as she shifted her gaze back to her mother's gravestone. "In a scary world where everyone had left her, the only person who could understand her pain and stood by her side… it was only you, Papa."

Sasha looked at her father again and smiled. "Despite the 8-year age gap, Mama still didn't give up on you. Even if you said that you were just a mere carpenter, she still looked up to you. In Mama's eyes, you are the most amazing person in the world."

She saw his eyes soften. Though she did not hear much about her mother, she was very sure that these were exactly what her mother would say. After all, she was her daughter. She was the product of the emotional bond forged between her parents.

Just then, her father walked past her and stood before another gravestone next to her mother's gravestone. It was a large gravestone, engraved with three people's names. They were her maternal grandparents and great-grandfather. Her father quietly paid his respect to them while Sasha stood behind him and watched. While waiting, she let her eyes scan the names and the descriptions and quotes engraved on the gravestone until she saw a familiar name beneath her grandmother's name.

 _Here lies the remains of  
_ Aoife Klein  
 _Daughter of Samoel Klein and Alexandra Ackerman  
_ _Wife of Yves Krause  
_ _Mother of Chriselda Lisa Krause  
_ _Born on 15th January 2783  
_ _Died on 16th September 2819_

Alexandra was her mother's grandmother. The dreams she sometimes had was also about 'Alexandra'. Was this a coincidence?

Sasha closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to reorganise her thoughts. Even though she had seen this gravestone countless times during her visits in the past, she did not particularly pay attention to that name before and she had never questioned it. She was not bothered by it either. But that name had become too familiar to her to not notice it anymore. How did that name invade her mind and confuse her during her time away from her hometown? What was wrong with her recently?

"Sasha?"

Sasha snapped out of her thoughts and dropped her hand to her side, looking quizzically at her father.

"Are you okay?"

Sasha quietly nodded with a small smile and looked away. She was wondering if she should ask her father about Alexandra. However, her father had never met her before. So, it was unlikely that he knew anything about her, except that she was the one who raised her mother up.

"D'ya wanna go now? We can head for dinner somewhere near this pla-"

"Papa," Sasha interrupted him with an apologetic look on her face. "The one who raised Mama after her parents' death was Alexandra, right?"

"Uh, yes."

"What was she like?"

Her father was taken aback by her sudden interest about her great-grandmother. He smiled bitterly as he cast his eyes down to the engraved name.

"She was a brave and strong woman. According to Mama, she was very strict but was also a loving grandmother. She could ride a horse very well and… I heard that she was good with guns and rifles. She had beaten two men up for trying to rob her, using hand-to-hand combat."

Sasha gulped. She totally didn't expect Alexandra to be that _strong_. She wondered how Alexandra looked like in person. Based on her father's description about her abilities, she imagined her as a person holding two guns in her hands, having an angry look on her face that could scare off anyone, and perhaps having arm and leg muscles larger than her father and beautiful abs lined up perfectly on her abdomen.

But hold on. Her father did ever mention about her mother wanting to name her after that woman.

" _She hoped to hold you in her arms and name you aft her grandmother whom she loved a lot."_

 _No way._

While her face slowly turning pale at this realisation, Sasha reached out to her father's arm and shook it rapidly. "Papa, so back then, Mama wanted to name me Alexandra?!"

"Ya. Why you-"

"Why did you change my name to Sasha?"

"What?" Her father frowned at her. "I wasn't the one who wanted to change your name, Sasha. It was Mama. She gave you this name."

She didn't get it. Why did her mother change her mind? But in the first place, why did her mother want to name her after her 'scary' grandmother who was so skilled with guns and combat?

"After findin' out that we had a daughter, she told me that she wanted to name you aft her grandmother who was strong. So, you could be strong like her. But…" her father paused and looked down. "... we received an advice from a fortune teller not to give you that name."

"Why's that so?"

"She said that this 'Alexandra' name could only bring bad luck to you. A promise that wasn't fulfilled would never be fulfilled. The chance to live would be cut short," he restated what he had recalled from that visit twenty years ago.

 _The chance to live would be cut short?_ Did that mean that she would die young? Was what the meaning of this? Sasha shook her head in disbelief. Did her parents seriously believe in this fortune telling crap?

Her father continued, "But she said that a variation of that name could help you to break away the loop of the past. The chance of you fulfilling your goals would be higher, and the chance to live… would be higher."

"What is the loop of the past?" Sasha questioned.

"We didn't ask about it that time… I wanted to ask what she meant, but Mama… she told the fortune teller that she understood what she meant and went ahead to choose another name."

"So, that was how Mama came out with the name Sasha?"

"The defender of mankind. Yes, we decided to go with that."

Sasha looked down and stared at her great-grandmother's name on the gravestone. Even if she had known the story behind why her parents had decided to name her Sasha and why not Alexandra, she still did not understand one thing.

Who exactly was that woman in her dreams? Alexandra of Dauper, or Sasha Braus whom she had always known herself to be?

-:-:-:-

"Thanks for the dinner, Sasha. I think I really should pay-"

"No problem, Papa. I'm glad that you enjoyed the meal," Sasha said gleefully as she took out some cash from her wallet and handed the cash to the cashier.

Her father pressed his hand on top of Sasha's hand and smiled at the cashier. "Sorry, I will be paying."

Sasha knitted her eyebrows at him as she withdrew her hand. Her hand went on top of his and quickly inserted the cash into the cashier's extended hand. The cashier glanced at the older man with uncertainty as she took the money from Sasha. Seeing Sasha constantly arching her eyebrows, hinting to her to quickly take the money, the cashier obeyed and opened the cash register. Sasha's father inhaled sharply and turned to his daughter.

"I can't let a student pay for our meals, can I?"

"What are you talking about? I'm working too and have just received my salary," Sasha retorted.

After taking the change, Sasha circled her arm around her father's arm and walked him out of the cosy diner much to his chagrin. Their first dinner together in their hometown after a year felt so good. The food was delicious, Sasha had eaten a lot! It had been a while since she bought a wide range of seafood and ate till her tummy literally expanded. She had to go to the restroom and loosen her belt a little. The time spent with her father catching up on life and telling funny stories was definitely worth the money spent on the expensive seafood. After all, once he returned to work the following day, he would be very busy to hang out with her again.

"Sasha, are you free tomorrow?"

The brunette turned to her father and nodded. The truth was, she had not planned to do anything for the next few days yet. She did think of staying at home and watch Connie's videos. She also wanted to go to Connie's house and play games with him, but it was very likely that he would be helping out his mother with her work. Other than these two things she wanted to do over the week, she had nothing else planned.

"Do you want to come to work with me?" her father asked.

Sasha's eyes brightened up instantly. "Can I?"

"Since when you couldn't?" He chuckled. "You were always helping me out."

Beaming, she chimed in, "Yes, to run errands and become your assistant."

"My lil' apprentice."

"I will wake up early to make us breakfast tomorrow, then we head out to the dork as usual?"

"Yes, thank you." Sasha's father said. "Oh, and before I forget, please bring along that medal. I wanna show off to my colleagues. They didn't believe me when I told them that I was attending my girl's archery competition. They said that girls couldn't shoot. What da hell. I shall show 'em!"

"Geez!" Sasha bit her lips, trying to suppress a laugh. "Let's show them, Papa…"

Suddenly, she remembered herself taking out her medal in front of her mother's grave. But what came after that was pretty fuzzy, except that she remembered herself talking about her friends. She pulled her backpack to her front and began unzipping it. After running her hand through every item, corner, and pocket, she then realised that she had left her medal…

On her mother's grave.

Sasha gasped. How could she be so careless?!

With a worried look, her father asked her, "What happened? Did you drop something?"

"Papa, I'm sorry." Sasha let go of her father's arm and took a few steps back. "I left something behind at Mama's grave. I need to get it back now. Please head home first!"

"I can go with you…"

Ignoring her father, she began jogging away and waved goodbye to him. "Bye! See you later! Rest early, okay!"

With that, she ran to the nearest bus stop and quickly boarded a bus that could directly take her to the cemetery. After a five-minute long ride, she alighted at an empty bus stop outside the cemetery and walked past the heavy gates. As the sun was setting, the evening sky was quite dark. The only light illuminating the pathway between the rows of grey tombstones came from the light poles. If Sasha had a choice, she would not dare to enter a cemetery at night alone. The air suddenly felt cold as she walked along the pathway. The fine hairs on her arms were standing while her heart was pounding rapidly in fear. Clutching her backpack tightly against her chest, her eyes surveyed the area attentively while her ears became extra sensitive to all sorts of rustling and scraping sounds in her surrounding.

Out of the blue, a street lamp flickered, causing Sasha to jump on her feet. Without looking back, she made a dash towards the direction where her mother's grave was at. As she approached her mother's grave, she saw a tall black figure standing before it. Feeling even more scared than curious, she halted and hid behind a nearby tree among the bushes as she cautiously observed the figure.

The figure seemed to belong to a man wearing a long dark coat and a hat. He was carrying a briefcase in one hand, and holding something else in another hand. She saw him bend down and place that thing, which was in his hand, in front of her mother's grave. Although she could not exactly tell what that thing was due to the dark, she knew that thing was most likely a bouquet of flowers like the one which she and her father had offered.

 _Who is he?_ She wondered to herself. She did not remember seeing anyone else other than her father visiting her mother's grave before. Her mother had no other relative left based on what she knew. Furthermore, she had not seen any of her mother's friends visiting her too.

Strangely, the silhouette reminded her of someone whom she had seen before. However, she could not recall who he was.

"Chris."

Sasha felt a knot in her throat. She had definitely heard his voice before, as well as that hypocorism. Was it that day before her tournament?

"We finally meet again."

 _No doubt about it. It's him._

* * *

 **Hi! Sorry for the very late update. I was having my exams over the past few weeks. My last paper was this morning (yay!) and I can finally rest and update this story. So sorry! But thank you for patiently waiting, and thanks for reading this chapter.** **Next, I would like to thank _pureunicorntears_ , and _Miqila_ for reviewing the previous chapter.**

 **Preview of Chapter 17:**

 _"Time sure flies so quickly, Chris... Remember we used to stare at those pictures and you asked who that cool lady was? I think I have found her. I wonder if our boy knows about it too. Probably he does because… he has stopped coming to my house."_

 **Till next time!**


	17. Chapter 17

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **17**

" _Let's name her Sasha, Royce."_

" _I hope our daughter will meet him one day. If what my friend said is true, they will definitely find each other again…"_

" _Levi, that boy… whenever I came over, he was always looking at her with longing eyes."_

" _Royce, you don't have to get it now. When that lady mentioned the loop of the past, I knew it straightaway that our daughter couldn't be named after whom she used to be. It would only tie her down… just like before."_

-:-:-:-

 _Who is that man? What is his relationship with Mama?_

Sasha felt conflicted. That tall man obviously knew her mother. Had he been visiting her grave since a long time ago? If he did, he must have visited her during times when she and her father weren't tending to the grave. That could be the reason why she hadn't seen him before. However, if that man was the same person who had approached her before the tournament, why did he mistakenly call her 'Chriselda'?

Still hiding behind the tree, Sasha decided to wait for the man to finish paying his respect to her mother and leave before coming out of her hiding place. But her plan was shattered almost immediately when that man turned his head to his right side, facing her direction. Sasha froze. Since the place was dark, she thought she could continue to conceal herself behind the tree if she did not move. The man would not be able to see her in the dark after all. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

"Come out now. Whomever you are."

Sasha shuddered upon hearing his words. He had noticed her. Knowing that she could not hide her presence from that man any longer, Sasha stepped out of the bushes and revealed herself. She slowly walked towards that man with a cautious look on her face. As she approached him, his facial features slowly became more distinct and she could somewhat see his cold, hard eyes boring into her. Like Sasha, he was equally on his guard.

Sasha closed the distance between them and stopped when she was about a metre away from him. This time, she could see that man relax his shoulders and his cold facial expression. His lips curled into a smile as he stared down at her.

"Well, well. Nice to meet you again, little one."

She kept her mouth tight close as her sharp eyes continued to study the man's features. She knew that it was rude to ignore his greeting but she could not help it. She was actually feeling nervous and scared despite putting on a brave front.

The tall man knitted his brows together and chuckled, "What's with that look? I don't bite. I'm here to visit your mother."

 _My mother?_

Sasha took a step back, flabbergasted by the fact that the stranger knew who she was. True, they had met once before by accident. But how could he be so sure that she was Chriselda's daughter? She could be here visiting someone else.

"Oh well," the man sighed with an awkward laugh before turning to face the gravestone before him. "Your daughter really takes after you, Chris. How can the both of you look so alike? For a moment, I thought you were still alive."

"Do I look like… Mama?" she blurted without thinking.

"Hm?" The man turned his attention back to Sasha with a surprised look on his face. "You can speak!"

Feeling a little insulted, Sasha frowned at him. Of course, she could speak! Thinking back, she realised that she had never opened her mouth in face of this man. All she did was just staring and studying him like a suspicious person.

"Sorry, sorry. It was a joke. Lighten up, yeah?" The man smirked. "With regards to your question, you sure do look like her. In terms of appearance… and the way you look at strangers."

"Wh-who are you?" Sasha asked nervously.

The man rubbed his bearded chin as his eyes shifted slightly upwards as if he was thinking about something.

"I'm her friend. Childhood friend, to be exact," he replied with a wry smile. "I hadn't heard from her for so long. It is only today that I found out that she had passed away."

"You only found out today?" Sasha looked at him in disbelief. "Mama passed away nearly twenty years ago."

"I know."

"But why…" Sasha lowered her head, still feeling confused. "No one told you about Mama's death."

"Well, Chris and I suddenly stopped communicating with each other after she finished high school. I tried contacting her after that, but it seems that she had moved to a faraway place. I did not know where she lived and couldn't contact her anymore," he explained in a soft voice. "I guess this was where she moved to. A nice, peaceful countryside. I see that her parents and grandfather are buried here too."

"Um, yes. According to Papa, she lived here with him and later got married," Sasha affirmed. "But how do you know that she is buried here? Who told you?"

"Hmm… Let's just say that I got curious about her whereabouts and did my homework which I should have done over the last twenty years," the man laughed. "I guess that I'm not a good friend. I kept thinking that Chris was somewhere enjoying her life and did not want to speak to her old buddy anymore."

"Why did you think so?" Sasha queried with a soft chuckle. "I think Mama wasn't the type who would abandon her old friend that easily."

"And why did you say so, hmm?" the man asked her with a lopsided smile. "Apparently, my letters were delivered to Chris. But she never wrote back. It was strange but I did not take any effort to find out why. If I had found out earlier, I would have known about her passing. Now, Miss Sasha, don't you think I should deserve a bad friend title?"

Sasha glanced at the engraved words on her mother's gravestone upon hearing him speak her name. _Oh, right. My name is right there._ Turning to him again, she gave him a small smile and shook her head. She disagreed with him. All the while, she thought that her mother did not have any more relatives and even friends. To see someone claiming to be friends with her mother made Sasha feel relieved. It felt like her mother wasn't exactly very distant from her anymore as her mother was still existing in a friend's memory other than just her father. If only she had memories of her mother, that would make three persons.

"I don't think you are a bad friend," Sasha stated. "You could remember her name and perhaps how she looked like in the past. Although you are late, the fact that you are standing here before her now is enough to prove that you didn't give up finding your childhood friend after twenty years. I think Ma… I mean, Chriselda is happy to see you again."

The man's weary eyes closed as a crease formed between his brows. He mumbled, "I hope so."

"I have something to ask you, Sir."

The man opened his eyes and glanced down at the girl standing next to him. "What is it, Miss Sasha?"

He could see her eyes brighten up in an inquisitive manner as if she had already warmed up to him and was no longer wary of him. That look reminded him of his 'long-lost' childhood friend and that broke him inside. Despite Sasha's assurance, he still felt sorry for only realising her death after so many years. He had been living in a lie, thinking that she was alive somewhere and reading all his letters sent over the past twenty years. It was still a mystery why she had left her hometown and stopped visiting the main house where everyone she had grown up with lived. She had just disappeared from everyone's life, leaving no trace behind. Who would have known that she had gone to the countryside and start a new life there?

"What was Mama like when she was younger? At what age did you meet her? Oh, is Mama really very pretty?" Sasha spoke in a rapid staccato, unable to contain her excitement at the thought of finding out more about her mother.

Since the man was her childhood friend, he should be able to tell her about her mother's growing up days. She did not mind if the stories were boring or embarrassing. As long as she could see her mother through the lenses of somebody else's eyes, she thought that she could feel closer to her mother.

The man chuckled, "One question at a time, Miss Sasha."

"Okay! I want to know what Mama was like last time! When she was a kid, a teenager, or any memories you have of her during your childhood!"

"Ah, your mother when she was a kid… hmm…" The man rubbed his chin as he recalled. "I have known her since she was four years old. Our grandmothers are friends so she always came to my house to play. Like her grandmother, she was very skilled in horseback riding. She was a very nice and soft-spoken person. Very poise and humble. She always had this elegant smile wherever she went. But…"

Sasha inched a little forward and prompted him to continue, "But?"

"Hmmm… but once she started to have fun, she forgot about her manners and started running about, talking and laughing loudly like a happy puppy."

Sasha's mouth twitched. _A happy puppy_?

"Oh, and she had a strange habit. I don't think it is nice of me to say it but if I have to put it in a nicer way, I would say that her appetite was very interesting," he added with a playful smile.

"Interesting… as in?"

"She could eat three persons worth of meal for a single meal and would be constantly snacking in between meals because she got hungry very quickly, but she was still as slim as ever."

Sasha gasped in surprise. So, she was not the only one who needed lots of food and could not gain any weight despite eating a lot! It was in the genes! Her metabolism rate was not solely due to her active lifestyle after all.

"I can only eat two persons worth of meal within a single sitting. Seems like Mama had beaten me to it!" Sasha said.

The man cleared his throat and muttered, "I don't think this is something to be proud of."

"Wow, Mama was sure amazing!" Sasha gushed, ignoring the man's comment.

"I swear I was once worried that she had worms in her intestines. How can a person eat so much and remain slim?"

"Did Mama like grilled meat?" Sasha continued to chatter excitedly. "And what was her favourite food?"

"You aren't even listening to me, are you?" the older man deadpanned. "Chris liked to eat all kinds of meat. She liked them grilled and barbequed."

"Same as me!"

"She had no favourite food. She literally gobbled everything presented to her."

Sasha winked at the man with a smirk. "Ah, that's my mother!"

"That's not something to be proud of, frankly speaking."

"You don't get it, Sir!" Sasha said as she crossed her arms, looking at him with a toothy grin. "I'm happy. So happy that I am hearing about my mother from a close friend of hers. What makes me happier is that I see more similarities between me and Mama. Papa never told me these things. That's why I'm glad to hear more about her."

"Is that so?" A small smile returned to the man's face. "Then, what else do you want to know about your mother?"

"Hmm…" While pondering, Sasha momentarily stared up at the dark sky above her and then lowered her gaze to her mother's gravestone. There were so many things that she was very curious about but it was already late. Her father would be worried about her if she returned home late. Though she wished that she could stay here a little longer and talked with this kind man, she had to take back what she had left and returned home quickly.

"Maybe next time, Sir. Thank you. It's pretty dark now and my papa is probably waiting for me at home," Sasha said. "It is so nice to talk to you even if it is a short while."

The man nodded. "My pleasure, Miss Sasha."

Sasha fished out her handphone and turned on its torchlight function, letting the light shine the small area in front of her mother's grave. She found her bronze medal laying next to the bouquet of carnations. She didn't remember placing it there but it could have been the man who had picked it up and placed it on the altar, thinking that it was actually meant to be there. She stooped down and reached towards her medal.

"I accidentally dropped it here earlier. That's why I have come to collect it," Sasha explained to the man as she picked her medal up and dusted it. "Pretty careless, am I not?"

She laughed sheepishly. But because of her carelessness, she had met her mother's kind friend.

"Congratulations for winning third place," the man said as he extended his hand towards her.

"Thank you, Sir!" Sasha bashfully took his hand and shook it. "Oh yes, before I go, there's one more thing I would like to ask."

The man raised his eyebrows quizzically.

"How should I address you, Sir?" she asked.

"Hmm… You're right. Calling me Sir doesn't really suit me," he joked with a laugh.

"I didn't mean-"

"Just call me Ken."

"Ken?" Sasha repeated. "Okay, thank you. It's really nice to meet you, Uncle Ken. I gotta go now. See you next time!"

The man nodded and waved goodbye to her as the brunette hastily inserted her medal into her bag while walking away briskly. Adjusting his bucket hat, he turned to look at his dear friend's grave again. With a soft chuckle, he shook his head and spoke again.

"Time sure flies so quickly, Chris. In the blink of an eye, your daughter suddenly appeared in front of me, looking so much like you. She takes after you in so many ways. Why, Chriselda? Why do you have to do this to a poor old man like me?"

The man shut his eyes and inhaled sharply.

"Remember we used to stare at those pictures and you asked who that cool lady was? I think I have found her. I wonder if our boy knows about it too. Probably he does because… he has stopped coming to my house."

-:-:-:-

Holidays had ended in a blink of an eye and it was the start of a new semester. During her final week of holidays, she returned back to her dormitory and bought some secondhand textbooks from some of her archery club seniors for her next study period. She had found out that none of her second-year modules was under Professor Shadis, and it did seem like good news. No more boring lectures and head clampings! She would miss his interactive tutorials though.

Her semester timetable was strange. It was not only her who found it weird. Her dorm mates and Connie were questioning one another why all the lectures and tutorials for every module were cancelled on the third week of the study period. Ymir mentioned that the school might be doing the 'e-learning' exercise which usually happened in the middle of the semester. Basically, during this exercise, every student did not have to attend face-to-face lectures and tutorials. They had online lectures and tutorials instead. This 'e-learning' exercise was conducted to test out the effectiveness of the online learning platform and also ensure that everyone could access real-time lectures and assignments through the online platform in times of emergency.

However, Connie noted that there was no online lecture and tutorial session during that week. Instead, all the subject outlines wrote something like this: _Tasks will be uploaded on the e-Learning portal on Week 3. For participation points, please attempt all the tasks._

Additionally, it was strange to have a short 'break' near the start of the semester. But Sasha didn't mind that. It was just another 'holiday' during which she could sleep in and take her own sweet time to get out of bed and do those 'e-learning' tasks. In fact, 'e-learning' tasks were usually very easy to do. After all, they were not graded. As long as she submitted those tasks before the deadlines, she would be marked present anyway.

She had also started her job hunting and submitted a few applications. She applied for part-time cashiering jobs at supermarkets, food packing jobs, flyer distribution jobs, and even that research assistant role as recommended by Levi. She did not know how long they would get back to her but she supposed that they would reply her within a few days.

She managed to meet the new workers during the weekends. They looked more senior than her and were very enthusiastic about working with Levi after Hannah had secretly warned them that Levi was strict and hard to please. They were experienced workers who had previously worked in other convenience store chains. So, Levi entrusted them the store during nighttime without having him to be present or guide them step-by-step on how to operate the store.

Furthermore, Levi took Hannah, Franz, and Sasha to a simple diner to treat them dinner after their work. It was actually to congratulate Sasha for doing well in the archery competition as promised before but since it was their first time having a meal together other than Levi's promotion party, Levi decided to use this chance to treat everyone to a meal as an incentive for working so hard. Though he reasoned to them that he had to pay for the meals as he was the most senior among the four of them, everyone knew that he just did not want to admit that he was being a nice senior who wanted to reward his subordinates.

Her first day of the new semester felt particularly long, probably due to Monday blues or because her mind was still in holiday mood. Not only that, there were three classes on Monday – 2 lectures plus 1 tutorial. It was usually the practice that tutorials would start on the second week, however, it seemed that the subject coordinator for one of her general modules had something installed for them on the first week of school. She wasn't surprised anyway, judging by the name of the module.

 _'Character Development and Community Service'_

Sounds interesting, isn't it?

"Definitely not! Why the hell are we studying this?!" Jean groaned as he shook his desk in frustration, ignoring the multiple stares from his classmates. "I want to skip this tutorial. The lecture was _sooooooo_ boring. What more can I expect from this tutorial? I'm tired, Marco."

Connie slid his portable desk towards Jean and teased him, "C'mon, bud. Cheer up. I'm sure, by the end of this semester, you will develop a good character."

"Shut up. I already have a good character."

"All of us will turn good humans and humanity will be restored."

"Shut up, Connie."

"Look at the bright side, okay?" Connie continued with a goofy grin. "I bet this module is one of those 'slack-ish' general modules for which we don't have to study so much. Just hands-on kinds of stuff and fun, like Professor Shadis' class."

Jean let out another groan and rested his forehead against his desk. Then, his soft mumbling voice was heard, "I hate general modules. I want to hurry up and choose a specialisation, then take the modules that I like."

Just then, Sasha slid over, purposely bumping her desk against Jean's desk and presenting four packets of sweet potato bun (which she bought from the cafeteria on the way to the tutorial classroom earlier) in front of the three boys. Jean's head immediately shot up in surprise but his eyes narrowed at her upon realising that she was the one who had just disturbed him.

"Hey, Horse-faced!"

"Hi Ms Potato," Jean greeted in annoyance. "Took you long enough to buy us snacks."

Sasha rolled her eyes and scoffed, "It was quite a long queue, okay! Be happy that I bought you food!"

Connie nodded in agreement and took the bun. He said, "Jean, today is your lucky day. Sasha is sharing food with you when she could have eaten everything on the table here at one go right in front of you. Be grateful."

"Well, the winner of the bet should treat everyone. That's the promise."

Yes, the bet. It was a silly bet which Jean had suddenly come out with the day before they received their semestral results. The bet was only for the four of them - him, Marco, Connie and Sasha. The one who had more 'A's on his or her transcript had to treat the rest. Initially, it was only between the three boys but Connie invited Sasha to join them and she willingly agreed. She thought that Marco would be the one winning this bet and treating her with food. But who would have thought that she got four 'A's while Marco had three 'A's. Both Jean and Connie had two 'A's. It was a real surprise for Sasha as she had never received this kind of grades in the past, and it was all thanks to the cram-study sessions with Armin and Krista. If Armin and Krista were to join them in this bet, it would have been one of them who had to treat them.

Sasha took the bun too and said, "I'm not sure if this was on purpose or not, but I have already gotten what you guys wanted. Sweet potato buns."

"It wasn't on purpose, I swear." Jean took the bun and tore the packet open. With a devious grin, he added, "Sweet Potato doesn't suit you anyway unless you want me to call you that."

Sasha waved off his words as she rolled her eyes, pretending that she did not care about his comment. Not like she liked to be called Sweet Potato either. Potato-girl was already bad and she did not want this nickname to further 'upgrade' itself like what her archery senior always did to her.

"Thanks, Sasha. And keep up the good work," Marco said with a smile.

Sasha smiled in return. "Thank you, Marco."

The four friends started consuming the bread, not caring about the 'no eating' signboard at the front of the classroom. They knew that food was not allowed in classrooms but since teachers generally did not care about them snacking in class, it had become a norm to bring snacks into the classroom as long as they did not litter after they had eaten. Students were slowly streaming into the classroom and the only people they could recognise were the four of them and the Jaeger-Arlet trio at the other side of the classroom chatting among themselves.

"Sasha," Connie spoke up again as he glanced around the classroom in puzzlement. "Aren't Krista and Ymir in this tutorial? I didn't see them here yet."

"Nope, they didn't manage to get into this tutorial slot as it was full by the time they entered the class selection website. They picked another slot instead."

"I see. Why didn't you join them?"

"Well..." The brunette shrugged, looking guilty for not joining her two friends in another class. "I love my friends but I'm not the type who would give up my place so that I can be with my friends. Besides, this slot fits my schedule so perfectly. I am not going to change it."

"Heartless," Jean said in a teasing tone.

"You're so right about me," Sasha answered sarcastically.

Just then, a tall bald man entered the classroom and everyone quietened down. As he placed his file and a tissue box on the desk at the front of the classroom, Sasha quickly stuffed the bun into her mouth while the boys hid their buns underneath the desk. Speaking about trying to be inconspicuous, Sasha failed badly at it. The professor glanced at her for a moment before giving her a smile.

"Good to see all of you again if you have attended my lecture earlier," the professor greeted the students. "For those who didn't attend my lecture for some reason, let me introduce myself again. I'm Dot Pixis. Please call me Pixis. I believe none of you has been taught by me prior to this module, but it's okay. I'm nicer than Professor Shadis even though I'm bald like him."

Sasha and Connie bit their lips, stifling a laugh.

"I admit that my lessons can be a lil' boring. But it's okay. I will do my best to make it very interesting for y'all. So interesting that you will want to take this module again," Professor Pixis continued as he grinned wider. "But too bad, you can only take this module once unless you fail."

Professor Pixis chuckled at his own joke while the students gave him a weird stare. Since earlier when all of them had met him for the first time, this man had given them a weird vibe. He did not look strict, which was a good thing. Neither did he look like he cared whether anyone would turn up for his class. He just walked into the lecture hall with a glass bottle of dark red liquid and claimed that it was red wine. As if the students were stupid enough to think that it was really wine! That was definitely cranberry juice.

Then, he cleared his throat and added, "Before I start the class, I want to settle some administrative stuff first. Boring, yeah? I know. I don't like doing this, separating good friends and all."

Sasha perked up her ears. Was he going to play ice-breaker games? That sounded fun! She turned to her three friends next to her and saw them giving the professor a dreaded look. It seemed like she was the only one who was looking forward to the 'administrative stuff' installed for them. Professor Pixis reached for the box on the desk and held it in front of him as he gave it a light shake. Then, he placed the box on a student's desk and smiled at everyone.

"If you have read the subject outline, you would have realised that we need to do some service to our community and do a write-up about it. Your presentation is based on the write-up. I will go through all of these in details later. But first..." He pointed at the box. "I need all of you to draw lots. Each lot will determine where you will be serving. It can be charity work, fundraising, or whatever that can expose you to a good learning experience. Ultimately, the aim of this community service is just to educate you on how to be a good human being."

"As if we aren't good human beings," Sasha heard Jean muttering softly to himself.

Marco laughed weakly at his friend's complaint. If he were to be honest with everyone, Marco would have agreed with Jean. But hey, an easy 'A' grade? Doing some community service wouldn't be that hard too, right? Marco raised his hand, capturing the professor's attention.

"Yes?"

Marco put down his hand and queried, "Sir, may I ask..."

"Pixis."

"Oh, um, Dr Pixis, may I ask..."

"Pixis."

Marco furrowed his eyebrows in embarrassment. What was he supposed to call him? Professor Pixis? Definitely not Pixis!

"Prof-"

"Pixis," the professor corrected.

"Pixis..."

Professor Pixis nodded smiled in satisfaction. "Yes?"

Marco cracked a smile as he looked at him, feeling awkward and confused. Cautiously, he held up his subject outline and asked, "I would like to ask about community service assessment component. It states here that the first part of the community service project would be carried out for a week. There is no lesson on Week 3... Is it because of this project?"

"Oh, yes, yes! All of you will carry out the service on Week 3." Pixis nodded. "I was planning to tell y'all later. But since you have mentioned it, I might as well just say it now. Sorry that I didn't write down the dates on the subject outline because it is hard to coordinate the timings with other modules. After some discussion with the different departments, we finally agreed on making Week 3 a self-directed learning week in which y'all will carry out the service at your own time."

"I see. Thank you," Marco said.

"You're welcome." Pixis briefly glanced around the classroom. "Okay, if there is no other question, we shall start drawing lots now. Shall we start from the first row first? Followed by the second row, and the next."

The students sitting at the front looked hesitantly at one another before standing up and making their way towards the box. Each of them took turns to draw a lot and returned to their seats while the students from the other rows began swarming and gathering around the box. After Sasha had drawn a piece of folded paper out of that box, she hurriedly returned to her seat and unfolded the paper to take a look at what was written on it.

' _Yellow Prison Flag Project'_

Oh, this! She had heard of this project before. It was actually a small organisation that aimed to help ex-offenders integrate back into society. This project basically tried to advocate and bring awareness about giving a second chance to these ex-offenders through various campaigns. Remembering when she was younger, she and her classmates would carry small yellow flags to school for a week because their teachers gave out those flags and encouraged them to show their support to help those poor, lost souls to 'be accepted and be loved again'. As this project had always interested her since the day she was introduced to the cute flags, Sasha was feeling excited to be part of this project even if it was only for a week.

She folded her paper and turned to Connie who had just returned to his seat. "So, what did you get?"

Connie flashed the paper at her and answered, "The Association for the Handicapped. What about you?"

"Yellow Prison Flag."

His eyes widened in surprise and exclaimed, "Cool!"

Sasha grinned sheepishly at his comment. Just then, Jean and Marco returned to their seats with their lots. Connie began asking them what they had gotten while the two of them showed their lots to him. Curious, Sasha tilted her head a little, wanting to catch a glimpse of the writing on their papers. However, she was interrupted by a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned around and noticed a girl, whom she had spoken to a few times over the past year in university, standing behind her with an anxious and apologetic look on her face.

Sasha smiled warmly at the girl and greeted, "Hi, Ollie. What is it?"

"Sasha, I'm sorry to bother you," the girl began as she pointed at the folded paper between Sasha's fingers. "May I ask what you have gotten?"

"Oh, this? Yellow Prison Flag Pro-"

"I see!" the girl interrupted. Her eyes brightened in an instant as if she had finally found her lost treasure. She held her paper in front of Sasha, showing her what she had gotten in return. "I got this preschool charity programme. But I'm terrible with children. Really terrible. Moreover, I don't like children."

"Uh…" Sasha was speechless for a second. Judging by her expression, she knew what that girl was going to tell her next.

"Can we exchange lots, Sasha?"

 _There._

"What?" Sasha's eyes widened, pretending that she had not anticipated her question. She immediately shook her head in response. "I don't think we are allowed to do this."

The girl laughed weakly and assured her, "Some people exchanged their lots. So, it's okay! Besides, Dr Pixis won't know if we exchange. We can't change our service only after he has recorded down our duties."

True. No one would realise that they had exchanged, except for Connie or anyone who knew about their lots. Furthermore, Pixis did not say anything about not allowing them to exchange lots either. So, presumably, it was fine to exchange the places of service. Much to the girl's dismay, Sasha shook her head again and said that she did not want to do so. She liked children but she would prefer helping out in the Yellow Prison Flag Project to carrying out a preschool charity programme. The girl lowered her head and walked away with a heavy sigh. She approached Connie and requested for the same thing. Knowing Connie and his experiences with children, he would definitely reject it. He liked children too but he was extremely bad with them. His absent-mindedness and forgetful nature frequently got him into trouble. He could be too engrossed in a television show and totally forgot about his little cousins running about in the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, Ollie. I am equally terrible with children. Why don't you ask Jean or Marco? Jean got some house painting jobs while Marco got some patrolling jobs with the police… I think," Connie suggested, pushing the request to his two friends next to him.

"No," Jean quickly interjected with a small frown. "Ollie, why don't you just accept your task? It's not like you will be doing this for the rest of your life! It is only for a week. Technically, only five days, excluding Saturday and Sunday."

The girl bit her lower lip, not saying anything. Sasha felt bad for her. Perhaps that girl really had bad experiences with children, which was why she was against the idea of doing this preschool charity programme. She had no idea what exactly the whole programme was but she had read about it on an internet news article before. Volunteers would conduct some interesting programmes in the poorer neighbourhood preschool centres and give out second-hand toys or any other useful materials to the preschools.

Sasha looked down and lightly pinched her folded paper in deep thought. To be honest, she did not mind helping the girl out. There would be always a second chance to be a volunteer for the Yellow Prison Flag Project too. Most importantly, the aim was to gather some learning experience from this service and do a write-up about it; no matter where she was put in, all she had to do was to do her best. It had always been like this. Sasha could survive anything even if she was being placed in an unknown setting. Volunteering in a preschool setting wouldn't be so hard, would it? What was actually holding her back?

"I…" Sasha spoke in a soft voice as she brought her folded paper towards the girl. "I think I can exchange mine with yours."

The girl looked at Sasha in surprise before a relieved smile made its way to her face. Her hand reached for the piece of paper but paused for a moment as her smile was replaced with a look of hesitation. She glanced up at Sasha and knitted her brows together.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yup. I'm fine with anything. Don't worry, just take it!" Sasha reassured her with a beam and brought the paper closer to the girl.

The girl smiled again and the two girls exchanged their lots. After the girl had thanked her and left to return to her seat, Sasha carefully unfolded the paper while Connie leant slightly forward to have a look at the writings on it.

"Good luck with little kids, Potato-girl. Can you even babysit?" Jean said in a teasing tone.

Sasha narrowed her eyes at him and retorted, "I'm good with kids. Just watch!"

"And making them cry after you finished the whole pie by yourself?" Connie commented with a smirk.

"What?!" Sasha blushed. "That was two years ago! I wasn't the only one who ate the pie! Connie, you ate it too!"

"Oh my god, Sasha. You are so terrible for bullying children!" Jean laughed.

"Oh? As if you have never bullied anyone before," Sasha said in disgruntlement and gently rubbed her upper chest. She shook her head and lamented, "Oh boy, my poor heart can't take this any longer. When is the day we can finally see eye to eye with each other?"

Knowing what she was trying to hint to him, Jean cringed and shook his head.

"Yes, Jean, stop bullying Sasha all the time!"

"What the heck, Marco!" Jean snapped and looked at his friend with a deep frown as if he had just betrayed him by standing on Sasha's side _again_. "I'm innocent!"

"Don't always make Sasha cry," Connie added with a laugh, enjoying the look on Jean's face. "I'm still believing that the two of you are lovers from your past lives."

"Eww. We must be divorced couple then," Sasha joked.

Running his fingers through his hair in frustration, Jean let out a groan and grunted, "Holy shit, you guys! Now, all of you are bullying me. I'm out!"

"But you still love us, right?" Connie continued.

"Why am I even friends with all of you?!"

Sasha grinned slyly. "Fate?"

Suddenly, a loud clap was heard and everyone in the classroom fell silent. It seemed that every student had drawn the lot and was waiting for Professor Pixis at the front to further explain about the assessment. The professor carried the box back to his desk and held up a piece of foolscap paper in front of his face.

"Moving on… Step 2, call the students to pair up," he read out loud for everyone to hear. Then, he put down the paper and smiled at his students. "Now that every one of you has known about where you will be working at during Week 3, I need all of you to find your partners. There are only two of you who have gotten the same piece of paper. That means that the two of you will be working together at the same place, do the write-up and the presentation together. Pair work, in other words. I will give you two minutes to find your partners and settle down at any desk with your partners. Is that clear? Let's go!"

Everyone started moving around the classroom and asking one another for the place where he or she would be volunteering at. While some students had already found their partners, Sasha and many others were still wandering around the classroom. Seeing Armin approaching her, Sasha smiled and hurriedly walked towards him. She didn't care who would be her partner as long as it was someone she knew and could get along with.

"Armin! What's yours?" she asked.

"The Association for the Handicapped. How about you?"

"Connie got the same lot as you!" Sasha pointed at Connie who was wandering on the other side of the classroom. "I got the preschool charity programme. Do you know who else has gotten the same lot as me?"

She noticed Armin's eyes widen for a second before darting to the left and his lips curled into a small smile. Sasha trailed his line of gaze and found a small gathering of students a few desks away from her. Next to that group was Mikasa speaking to someone sitting down in front of her.

"It's one of them."

"Mikasa?" Sasha said in a questioning tone, shifting her gaze back to Armin.

He shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not sure, honestly. Those two have been arguing about exchanging their lots since earlier."

"What?" Sasha laughed. "Alright. I will try asking Mikasa. Thanks for telling me!"

"Uh…"

Before Armin could say anything, Sasha immediately made her way to Mikasa and that was when she overheard the pair's heated conversation. As she got closer, she realised that the person whom Mikasa was talking to was actually Eren. His voice did not sound too happy at all while Mikasa still sounded calm as she spoke patiently to him.

"Come on now. You are not suited for this at all. Mine is pretty easy for you."

"No way! Why are you always like this? Just let me be, okay? I don't want to exchange with you."

"I'm just trying to help you, Eren. Stop being stubborn."

"You are the one who is being extremely stubborn!"

Sasha stopped walking, keeping a certain distance away from them. She was not sure if she should interrupt them and ask about their lots, or leave them alone. But she had to find her partner as soon as possible!

"Why don't you, for once, stop worrying about every single thing I do? It's not like I will die if you don't stick your nose into my affairs. I'm already in university, I'm no longer a kid!"

Mikasa inhaled deeply upon hearing his words and turned her head away to avoid his stern gaze. Her eyes looked terribly downcasted. Although Sasha could not agree with both Eren's and Mikasa's little argument, she felt really bad for Mikasa. She knew that Mikasa had always wanted to help Eren in any way she could. She was willing to do anything as long as Eren was comfortable or safe despite his protest for 'independence'. Mikasa was literally the best sister Sasha had ever seen.

Then, Mikasa's eyes fell on Sasha. In response, Sasha stiffened and forced a weak smile.

"Hi, Mikasa!" The brunette began walking towards her again. "What did you get? I got the preschool charity programme."

"Preschool charity programme?" Like Armin, Mikasa looked surprised upon hearing it. "I… I got police patrol."

"Same as Marco!"

"Is that so?"

"Wait, Sasha. You got that preschool thing too?" Eren cut in as he stood up with his lot in his hand. Upon seeing Sasha nod in reply, Eren flashed a toothy grin and showed her his paper. "Me too."

Mikasa turned to look at Eren again before letting out a soft sigh. "I guess… I shall join Marco now. See you later."

Mikasa walked away with heavy shoulders. Again, Sasha felt charitable all of the sudden. Since it seemed that Mikasa wanted the preschool lot, Sasha didn't mind exchanging hers with Mikasa's. Furthermore, Mikasa could be with her brother and they both could help each other out easily. Plus, she did not mind working with Marco. Just as she was about to approach Mikasa, she felt a hand rest on her right shoulder. The warmth of his fingers once again reminded her of that day when he grabbed her shoulder, bringing her scary thoughts about titans back to reality. Like before, she turned around and stared cluelessly at him while he let go of her shoulder with a flustered look on his face.

"D-D-Don't."

Sasha tilted her head, feeling even more puzzled by the fact that the boy next to her had just stuttered. This was the second time he had done so. The boy she had always known since the first year was so confident, undoubtedly a daredevil, and had always refused to show his vulnerable side. In fact, she did not know if he had any vulnerability. Putting on a small smile, she turned to face him. Little did she know that her smile was affecting him even more than he wished it should.

"Don't what?" she asked.

Eren looked away and muttered, "Nothing…"

"If Mikasa doesn't mind, I can exchange mine with-"

"That's why, don't-"

Eren immediately kept his mouth shut, earning a small frown from Sasha.

"Why not?" she queried. "She really does seem to want this preschool charity programme."

Eren shook his head and replied, "No, she doesn't. She just doesn't want me to work with children… saying that I'm a bad influence and I will make everyone cry. Frankly, she is no better than me when it comes to interacting with kids. The police patrolling work really suits her if you think about it."

Sasha bit her lips as she held back a chuckle. So, it was not just the 'independence' he was fighting for. He was actually thinking about Mikasa. If only he was more vocal about it, just like his sister…

"Alright then. So, it will be the two of us!" Sasha said as she extended her hand towards Eren, beaming widely. "Our first pair work together. Let's do our best!"

Smiling back at her, Eren reached out to hold her hand and wrapped his fingers around it. His brows furrowed at the familiar scene set before his eyes. It was exactly the same gesture, the same mood, the same feeling in his chest, and the same crying voice resonating in his head as before when they had first held each other's hand as strangers.

 _Hey, Sasha. Do you know…?_

Neither did he hate that unexplainable feeling, nor could he be bothered by that little voice in his head. All he had known at _that_ time was that they were more than just strangers. _Strangers that seemed to have known each other since a long time ago..._

"Yup. Let's do well together, Sasha."

* * *

 _A million pictures of you crushed in my arms but I still can't feel anything._

 _The warmth of your hands which I craved for… When can I hold them again?_

 **Until next time.**


	18. Chapter 18

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **18**

When she had first heard the news that he was dead, she could hear a sharp buzzing sound deep inside her ears. Her eardrums felt like they were going to burst at any moment. Her head hurt. It hurt more than those migraines she occasionally had. She wanted to die with him. She didn't care if she died as well. After all, her purpose of living had withered together with her best friend. Her first love.

A part of her didn't want to believe that he was dead. Their childhood friend had to be lying. There was no way a boy who was full of surprises would be dead so suddenly. He would certainly come back and prove her wrong like always. But a part of her had already given up on everything. Their friend's tears were the proof that he would never return.

While she quietly drowned herself in sorrow, not caring if she would be killed on the very same day as him, he came back stronger than he was before. From that day onwards, she vowed to herself that she would be even stronger than him and never lose him again. She would protect him at all cost even if it meant slaying anyone who stood in her way.

But she made a mistake. She played by the rule of "all-or-none", either this or that, no in-between. He was her world, her top priority in every decision she made. Nothing else matter. What she had failed to expect were the _two polar opposites_. She dropped a barrier for the first time, claiming it to protect him from harm. Did it work? The answer was yes. The second barrier was dropped, but it didn't work at all. He was a boy who had never failed to surprise and worry her all the time. That day when she had lost sight of him was the day he had managed to break the barrier. No matter how many barriers she had put up, he would get through them. In the end, it was no different from not restraining him at all. He was a curious person. Like an eagle, he deserved to be free.

The second time he died was, of course, the most tragic thing that had happened in her life. He was the only family member whom she had left. It was the curse that took him away from her. It was her mistake that made him slowly wither in guilt. Seeing him being wasted each day till his last breath was unbearable. It was torture. She wanted to feel exactly what he was feeling whenever he wrapped his scarred hand around that small block of charcoal. She wanted him to scold her for being nosy like he always had whenever she tried to pull him out of his misery.

However, all he did every day was trying to recreate an image that could transport him back in time, convincing himself that the dead would emerge from the raging fire one day. Whatever happened that day was a dream, far from reality, or so they wished. Victory was theirs, but in the end, they had lost many others in pursuit of freedom.

It was her fault that he became this way.

If only she hadn't listened to that _dying_ girl…

A million pictures could not bring the dead back. A million pictures could not bring them back to those lost times. A million pictures could not free them from guilt and despair.

In front of her, she could only watch the pictures burn. The only one left, the final piece tainted with his tears, belonged to her. As her fingers brushed against his name on the paper, she realised that maybe things were supposed to end like that. Whether or not she could return to those days and fix things up, they were just beyond her control. So, no matter what she did, it might end the same way again. The one who could change everything that had happened was that boy himself. The person on the other side of the paper would not have died. She could have been alive, perhaps comforting her and making sure that she would not end up like that boy. She might even end up reciprocating her superior's kindness and perhaps return to her village as a respectable soldier. Nothing would happen if not for that first breach of trust.

"You're still… No." She could hear a man's voice behind her. "You have to move on. Please. I can't bear to see you like this anymore."

She pressed her forehead against the paper on the wooden floor and shouted angrily to whoever the person was outside her room, "Go away. Don't disturb me!"

"I won't leave until you stand on your feet," he chided in a slightly louder voice as he approached her.

He had never raised his voice at her. Never in almost ten years she had known him. He was always stuttering and acting shy around her. He was always trying to act tough in front of her when she knew that he was equally breaking inside. Their friends had died. The two friends whom he had held so dear in his heart vanished right before his eyes before he could even see how they were killed. Before she knew it, she felt a pair of hands forced her shoulders up and found herself staring straight into his angry eyes. Frowning, she jerked her shoulders and slipped away from his grasp.

She bellowed, "Leave me alone."

"No, I'm not going to let you repeat the same old damn thing again."

"It's not a damn thing!" she retorted angrily. "If not for me… th-they… wouldn't die… "

His eyes widened at her, looking aghast. She lowered her head and stared at the name under her nose.

"Eren…" she whispered in a quivering voice as she felt her hands trembling weakly. "I should have known th-"

Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled forward and her face pressed against his chest. His arms wrapped around her smaller frame and held her tight. Normally, she would have retaliated and moved away from him. Normally, she would have kept her cool no matter how much the situation was hurting her. Instead, she froze, letting his embrace overwhelm her.

"Mikasa, it's never your fault. Nobody blames you. I'm sure this was what she wanted. If not, she wouldn't have entrusted everything to you."

She shook her head. She was very sure none of them wanted that to happen. Sadly, including herself. A picture worth a thousand words; he didn't have to say it but she already knew what he had wished for. Her eyes slowly began to water.

"She is our friend… a rather close one, so I know how big her heart was. So, please, let's step out of this room. Armin is waiting for you outside. He's worried," he said in a gentle voice as he hesitantly placed his hand on the back of her head.

She did not respond to his touch. She was too tired to even bother slapping his hand away. Moreover, for once, she did not mind if the two of them stayed like this for a short while as she slowly collected herself again. She muttered a soft 'thank you' and closed her eyes, letting herself immerse in the quiet warmth of his embrace. A picture worth a thousand words. She thought that if she continued to hold on to this picture, those words would reach them one day. However, an image of someone's hand flashed before her eyes, reaching out to the picture beneath her. Before she knew what was happening, that picture was gone forever.

"Mikasa? Your alarm is ringing. Hey…"

Her eyes flew up at the sound of his voice which she had missed so much. She heard him every day, yet it felt like it had been ages since she had last heard his voice. The agony and the pain were immediately washed away as soon as she locked her gaze with his. All she could feel was pure relief. Everything was over. The torture was over. Everyone was alive. She could see worry written all over his face, and that was when she realised that she had slept through her alarm. _Crap._ She quickly grabbed her handphone and silenced the annoying beeping sound before springing up with a frown forming on her forehead.

"Eren, you're up earlier than me."

Eren swallowed hard and grinned sheepishly. She noticed his hand moving its way up to the little white cloth around his neck and loosening it. Then, he removed the cloth and tucked it in his pocket.

He replied, "I had some things to do just now."

Mikasa rose an eyebrow quizzically. Eren was never the type who would wake up early without her going into his room and dragging him out of bed. For him to wake up early by himself, the 'things' he had to do was definitely important. Homework? _Nah_ , it was only the first week of school! She hadn't even started on anything yet.

"What are the things that you have to do?"

"Uh, helping Mum with… chores?"

Well, that was suspicious. Eren waking up early to do house chores? That wasn't like him at all.

"But are you okay? You don't look good at all," Eren asked. His worried look returned again.

Mikasa nodded in assurance as she got out of bed. Just when her feet touched the ground, she heard him speak again.

"Breakfast is on the table, Mikasa. Please try the mashed potato I made and tell me how it is. It's in a small bowl, just a few spoonfuls will do."

 _Huh?_

Mikasa's jaw dropped a little, staring at Eren in surprise. She shook her head and covered her mouth, no doubt not believing what he had just said.

"You're kidding. Mother made it."

A blush slowly crept to his cheeks while giving her an irritated frown. He groaned, "Geez. Whoever made it, just tell me how it is, okay?"

"I'm sure it will taste fine."

"Just try it!"

"Okay, okay, let me wash up first." Mikasa grabbed her face towel which was hanging against her wardrobe and left her room. She noticed Eren quickly leave as well and hurriedly enter his room while wrapping that white cloth around the lower half of his face. Mikasa bit her lower lip and pondered. _What day is it today?_

After washing up herself, Mikasa made herself comfortable at the dining table and started digging in the food which Eren had prepared for her. Other than the mashed potato, Eren even made a mug of warm chocolate milk and an egg sandwich for her. It was strange. It had always been her or Carla who prepared breakfast before Eren woke up. For him to prepare something elaborated (okay, not that elaborated), there was something up his sleeve.

While she was eating, she observed Eren walking in and out of his room, carrying a few bags which she assumed was his trash and placing them near the doorstep at the foyer. So, he was really doing his chores. _What had happened to him?_

Probably sensing her intense gaze, the lad stopped whatever he was doing and turned to look at her with a curious gaze. Mikasa immediately looked down, smiling awkwardly at the bowl of mashed potato in front of her. It tasted salty, too salty for her liking, and there were small solid lumps that were not properly mashed. Obviously, Carla did not make this.

"How was it?" she heard Eren ask in anticipation.

"Better than I expected," Mikasa blurted, but she immediately regretted what she said.

"Really?" Eren responded with a look of relief. His eyes instantly brightened as if he had found a whole new lot of determination. "I'm going to make this tonight then!"

Upon hearing that, Mikasa nearly spat out the potato in her mouth. She had nothing against this mashed potato. It was made by Eren, so there was no way she would say that she didn't like it. But she didn't want Eren to make this again unless he learnt to do this better.

Mikasa sighed. "There are a few things you can improve on though. Better than expected doesn't mean good job."

Eren knitted his eyebrows together. That gleam in his eyes suddenly diminished and she felt bad for it. If he wanted to make this again, he better improved.

"So, it tastes… bad?" he asked in a soft voice.

"Not exactly. But there are some small lumps. You didn't mash the potato properly. Oh, and I suggest you add some other spices in other than salt." Mikasa paused for a moment before scooping a spoonful of mashed potato and holding the spoon up facing Eren's direction. "Come here. I bet you didn't even taste what you made."

"I did!"

"You can't lie to me, Eren. Come here," Mikasa said firmly.

Eren groaned and mumbled something under his breath as he walked over to the dining table. He took the spoon and ate the mashed potato.

"What do you think?"

"Hmm… Flat?" Eren responded, looking quite uncertain with himself much to Mikasa's surprise.

"Flat? It's salty, isn't it?"

He furrowed his brows, looking even more doubtful of himself as he looked at her. "Erm, I guess is a yes?"

Mikasa frowned at him. "What have you been eating, Eren?"

"For breakfast? Potato?"

Mikasa shook her head with a sigh. Had he been trying to make this dish this whole time till his taste buds became insensitive? Was he even following the recipe? What kind of recipe did he refer to? _What day is it again?_ "No, this can't do. I have to teach you how to make a proper mashed potato after class today. And I shall prepare today's dinner as usual."

Eren stiffened for a brief moment before speaking again, "No, you can rest for today. I promise Mum that I will help her out. I also pounded and seasoned some meat this morning so perhaps we can try cooking a small portion of it first when we return home later. I'm afraid… it will taste bad."

Mikasa was taken aback. Once in a while, Eren would help out in the kitchen before dinnertime. But that was only when Carla asked him for help and the things he did in the kitchen were just simple tasks like taking the food out from the fridge and preparing the plates and utensils. The fact that he actually woke up very early and prepared food for dinner really surprised her.

"Please, Mikasa?"

Seeing his pleading face made her feel bad again. She forced a small smile and nodded to his small request. There must be a reason why he was doing all these preparations. The last time Armin came over to their house, he volunteered to help Carla in the kitchen. Finally, she recalled something which Eren had said to Carla during dinnertime two days ago.

 _So, this must be it._

She stood up and took the spoon from his hand. She was not going to let him make this dish for their guest. Instead, he would make _that_. The dish which she randomly made with _her_ on a whim when they were sixteen. The same dish which brought smiles to their faces. The dish which she made for herself to remember their friendship. This time he would make it.

"Do you want to know a secret?" Mikasa asked in a whispering voice to which Eren curiously hunched a little forward to hear the _secret_. "I know what else you can make with potatoes."

"Hm?"

"I don't think she has tried it before but I can assure you that she will like it very much."

 _Because that was once_ her _favourite dish._

-:-:-:-

When Sasha said that she would prefer working with someone she knew and could get along with, she did not expect herself to be paired up with Eren. Of all people in her tutorial class, it just had to be Eren. During the lesson, she did not really think much about it. While they were given some time to discuss what they wanted to do for the community service in class, Sasha's focus was all on planning out their charity programme. It did not feel awkward sitting next to him and discussing their plans. Moreover, they had managed to come out with many suggestions and created a draft proposal about the things they wanted to do in that programme within forty-five minutes. If this was counted as a conversation, then they had reached another milestone. It was only after the lesson then she realised that she would be stuck with her partner for the following weeks to come. They had to meet up to plan out their programme, prepare the materials, contacting and liaising with the preschools, and do their write-up and presentation slides together. Would she able to pull this through with him without getting awkward or self-conscious?

Oh yes, she had to pull this through no matter how awkward things might be.

" _Sasha, is it okay if we meet up again this week to discuss our project? When will you be available after school?"_

The first week of school was usually quite hectic, especially for club members. As many clubs had to recruit new members, club members would be busy setting up booths in the piazza and stadium and giving some public showcases to generate interests among the freshmen. Sasha was tasked to do some demonstrations in between her classes and after school, together with some other members of the Archery Club. That meant she would only be available in the evenings, right after the showcase was over.

" _It's alright. If you don't mind, we can meet up after the club recruitment drive. Otherwise, we can meet up during the weekend? Whichever is convenient for you…"_

How thoughtful of him. She felt bad though. Because of her, they had to meet up late. But didn't he have to help out with the Environmental Cleaning Club as well? Maybe there were already enough members helping out at the booth.

" _I totally understand that doing this project in school is more convenient for you… But do you mind coming to my house to do it instead? We have… um... faster internet there…"_

She could not deny the fact that the internet connection in school was actually very slow and, sometimes, wicked— _Can't connect to the internet. The server is down. Please try again later._

" _There's food at my house too… so you can come straight after the recruitment drive. After all, the canteens usually close before 6pm. It will be troublesome to buy dinner after that."_

She did not want to appear as somebody who only turned up because of food. However, the way he put it sounded like he did consider about her dinner. If he had not said it, she would have thought of grabbing some food from any nearby convenience store or food stall. She knew that he meant well, but was it really okay to accept food from him? Was he going to prepare food? Eren could cook…?

" _If we have some time, w-we can try out th-that g-game together."_

Oh, right. She had promised him before. She kept pushing back the dates and did not meet up with him to play the _Attack on Titan_ game. There was no way she could keep rejecting him and making him wait as he might think that she was trying to avoid him.

" _That's great! All set then. See you this Wednesday. I will pick you up after the recruitment drive… Oh, you prefer coming over by yourself? Erm… Alright then, I will text you my address tonight."_

And that was how she landed up standing outside the Jaegers' house.

-:-:-:-

A moment ago…

It was finally the end of the first day of the recruitment drive. According to her senior, they had managed to get twenty students to sign up for the trial practice. Normally, the number of students joining the archery club officially would be less than half of the number of names collected from the drive. Luckily, they had another two more days to recruit more students. After cleaning up the booth and the stadium, Sasha quickly headed back to her dorm so that she could wash herself up and change into her clean clothes.

Upon opening the front door, Sasha noticed two unfamiliar pairs of shoes lined up nicely next to the shoe rack. One of them was a pair of soccer shoes, and the other was a pair of track shoes. She frowned curiously. As those shoes were too large for her housemates, Sasha concluded that they had invited guests over and those guests were certainly not supposed to be here either. True enough, as she glanced over to the common room, she saw her housemates and their two invited guests sitting around the small coffee table with a laptop in front of them. They were chattering away while pointing at the laptop screen, totally ignoring Sasha's presence in the foyer. Without further ado, Sasha took off her shoes and stepped into the common room.

"Hi, what are you guys doing here?" she queried as she walked towards the coffee table, capturing her friends' attention. "Since when are boys allowed in here… again?"

"Hi, Sasha!" Connie greeted aloud as his hand fumbled with the mouse, trying to click something but missed.

Krista immediately reached for the keypad and began typing away before bringing her hands to her back and smiled warmly at Sasha. Ymir who was sitting close to Krista did not seem too surprised to see her, unlike the other two.

Ymir raised her hand and said, "Hey. You look sweaty as usual. Go wash up, yeah? Your clothes are already in the bathroom."

"Uh, okay…" _My clothes?_

"Welcome back!" Krista chimed in and turned to her invited guests, then back to Sasha again. "I'm sorry, Sasha, but I hope you don't mind their presence! I invited Connie and Armin over to do some work."

"We will be leaving soon anyway. Don't want to get all of you into trouble," Armin added with an apologetic look.

"What work? Oh, don't tell me…" Sasha knitted her eyebrows together with her arms crossed. "You guys are already having a study session on the first week of school? That's some high level of studiosity!"

"No, we're not," Ymir replied with a laugh. "We are having a project discussion."

Sasha's hands dropped as she stared wide-eyed at her friend. "Project discussion?"

Heck. Despite knowing that there was another group project to be submitted in Week 7, Sasha had not even thought about forming a group with whom yet since the tutorial for that module had not officially started till another week. Seeing her friends already start working on it, forming a group without her, that would mean that she had to start pulling up her socks and turning her gears so she would not fall behind others. However, it was so strange that the four of them were already discussing that project before the tutor could say anything about it!

"What's with that look? Aren't you going to have one later too?" Ymir said with a smirk as she leant forward and rested her arm against the edge of the table. "With Eren Jaeger?"

"Yes. How do you know about it?"

As far as she could remember, she was sure that she did not tell anyone about her meeting with Eren. But it was possible that Eren had told Armin about it and the news just spread to her housemates. Well, it was not like she would be bothered if they knew about it or not. After all, she was planning to tell them that she was heading to his house for a project discussion so she would not be having dinner with them.

"My intuition."

Sasha laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. Then, you have guessed it correctly."

"Have a wonderful dinner with him!" Connie cheered happily, and Krista giggled in response.

"He likes blue. His favourite colour."

Sasha shifted her gaze to Armin who had randomly spouted that comment. _Who likes blue? Eren?_ Her eyebrows rose. What did his favourite colour have got to do with her?

The male blonde forced a weak smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking fairly uncomfortable at the moment. "J-Just saying, in case you are curious later."

She didn't get it. Anyway, it was good to know that Eren liked blue even if that comment was totally random. Giving her friends a nod, she walked away and entered her room. After putting down her bag and grabbing her towel, she headed to the bathroom where she remembered Ymir saying that her clothes were already there. Although she did not question Ymir, it felt extremely strange that her housemate had suddenly decided to prepare her clothes before her bath time. Ymir had never done this for her before. Not even Krista. Neither had Sasha ever prepared clothes for her housemates. Whatever the clothes were, Sasha knew that either of them was up to something. Carefully, she opened the bathroom door and took a look inside.

What she saw hanging on the metal wall rack made her jaw drop and her face flush deep red. It was only then she realised what Armin meant. Hanging on that rack was a piece of blue sleeveless dress with a low 'V' cut at the front, and a beautiful set of black frilly undergarments. She swore those things did not belong to her! Throwing her towel above the metal rack, she grabbed the dress and the embarrassing undergarments and ran out of the bathroom towards the common room.

"Seriously, friends?!" Sasha brought the dress forward while hiding the undergarments behind that dress since it was too embarrassing to show them to the boys. "These aren't mine!"

"We know."

"Whose idea was it?!"

The four of them stared calmly at her, pulling a straight face at her while watching her look flustered and embarrassed with those provocative clothes in her hands.

"Will definitely look good on you, Sasha!" Connie gave her a thumbs-up, ignoring her question and facial protest.

Sasha shook her head in disapproval and asked again, "Did the four of you purposely gather here to do this to me?"

"You're getting sharper!"

"Geez, Ymir! That's not the point!" Sasha sighed. "I'm not wearing these, okay? It will embarrass the hell out of me."

"Awwww."

"By the way, whose dress is this? And whose underwear?"

"That underwear is mine," Krista immediately responded with a gentle smile. "Do you like it?"

"No!"

Pointing at the blue dress, Connie said, "And that is Armin's dress!"

"Wh-What?!" Sasha's jaw dropped again as she stared wide-eyed at Armin, who looked equally flabbergasted by Connie's comment. She cleared her throat and muttered softly to herself, "I see. Never knew you are into-"

"It's not what you think, Sasha!" Armin defended himself and placed his palm on Connie's head, intending to give his crown a tight squeeze for blurting out _that nonsense_. "I borrowed that dress from my cousin."

"Oh, thank you to your cousin. But I don't need it," Sasha deadpanned. "Besides…"

She paused, appearing to think about something. Then, she shook her head.

"Never mind. I'm returning all these to y'all." Sasha placed the clothes on the table and then placed her hands on her hips. "I assume that the guys are free to go now since the prank is over?"

Connie pouted with a small frown. "It wasn't a prank, Sasha. We were earnestly trying to help you out!"

Grabbing the clothes on the table, Krista stood up and let the dress hang down freely. She turned to Sasha's direction and raised her arms higher, trying to visualise how great her friend would look in that dress.

"What are you guys thinking? Seriously," Sasha groaned as she watched Krista adjusting the dress in front of her body. "If you guys were earnestly trying to help me dress up, then thank you. But I can't wear like that to Eren's house. He will think that I'm weird for… trying so hard."

Krista lowered the dress and looked up at Sasha with a small frown. "Of course not! You will look so gorgeous! You will make a good impression on his family members!"

 _Are you sure, Krista? You don't need a frilly bra and panties to make a good impression! What kind of logic is this?_

"No, thanks." Sasha gently pushed the dress away. "I'm going there for a project, remember? Not like I am… h-his…"

Her cheeks reddened again. She pursed her lips and averted her eyes away from Krista. _His what?_

"See, Krista, I told you that Sasha would reject this idea," Ymir spoke again as she rested her arm on Krista's shoulder. "It's still too early for your ship to sail."

Dropping her arms and letting the hem of the dress touch the ground, Krista turned to Ymir and chuckled awkwardly at the last comment. Meanwhile, Sasha rose an eyebrow quizzically. What did Krista's ship sailing have got to do with her wearing that dress? Or was it a figure of speech among the city people? She had not heard it before.

"Aww, I was thinking to feature her wearing this dress in my vlog! My subscribers would love it!" Connie's voice suddenly broke her train of thoughts.

Sasha groaned again. Her friends truly had so much time in their hands while she was so convinced that she was lagging behind them in schoolwork. Apparently, it seemed that they were not doing the project which she had assumed earlier. After all, it was still too early for them to even start without any instruction from the tutor.

"I am going to take a quick shower now. Talk to y'all later."

Sasha gave them a small wave and headed back to her bedroom to get some decent clothes. She did not think much about what she was going to wear at first, however, after seeing that blue dress made her a little more self-conscious about her attire. Each piece of clothing she took out from the cupboard was evaluated with three questions: Would it look good on her? Would Eren think she was weird and was 'trying too hard' if she wore it? Did it have any blue on it?

After choosing for a good five minutes or so, Sasha decided to go with a white long sleeved shirt and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans which she seldom wore. She bought the pair of jeans a year ago before entering university, thinking that she would often wear it to school. However, wearing either long skirts or track pants had always been her style since she was a child. So, she had never gotten used to wearing a pair of skinny jeans. Believe it or not, she wore a pair of black loose yoga pants to work all the time. Luckily, Levi did not say anything to her even if he did notice it.

As for her undergarments, well, she did not care at all. Who in the world would want to see her in matching frilly underwears? That would be so gross to even think that someone would be interested to look at what was underneath her clothes. Hence, she just randomly grabbed any article that happened to be at the top of the messy pile of undergarments in the cupboard and then immediately returned to the bathroom to have a quick warm shower.

-:-:-:-

It turned out that her four friends indeed had a project discussion, other than having a fun time helping Connie edit his video for his vlog channel. From what she had overheard, Connie had streamed a gaming video, not exactly a vlog although he was planning to feature some of the things he did with his neighbours in his hometown. Much to her surprise, Eren and Armin were in the gaming video, being in the same battle team as Connie's avatar. Krista was in it too but her avatar had died too early and she had to spend a vast amount of time recovering her health and waiting for her teammates to revive her avatar because the boys were too engrossed in the game to even notice that her avatar was no longer existing on their screens. Their chatbox was flooded with her capitalised texts, asking for help, but was ignored. It was only when she texted Armin with an angry emoji then he used his last revival card on her.

How Sasha wished that she could join in the game! Unfortunately, she had spent most of her time helping her father back in her hometown. Oh well.

Regarding the project discussion, her four friends were lucky to be assigned to the same organisation, The Association for the Handicapped, despite being from different tutorial groups. Since it was pair work, they were given different duties but they were planning to combine their efforts to help each other out. It sounded cool that the four of them were in that together. Sasha wondered if there was anyone else who had the same lot as hers and Eren's. Even if they did, they would not be visiting the same preschools as her because they needed to spread out their manpower.

Eren and Mikasa lived in a single-storey terrace house, not far away from their university campus. It was surprisingly close to the convenience store where she worked at. She wondered if the Jaeger siblings had ever visited that convenience store. Maybe they had but they probably happened to visit it whenever she was off from work. It would be a surprise that she had never met them in the store yet after working for a year there, three to four times a week after school hours and even during the weekends. The odds of not crossing paths was certainly low, or so she thought.

Upon arriving at the doorstep of their house, Sasha was greeted with the rich aroma of food wafting from the open window at the front of the house. She could not believe it. Did Eren really cook? For her? After a long and tiring day in school, Sasha's stomach had been feeling 'empty' ever since she left her dormitory. She regretted not taking a packet of potato chips from the pantry to satisfy her hunger pangs on the way to his house. Unfortunately, the aroma coming from the Jaeger's residence did no justice to her poor stomach. It let out a loud growl and all Sasha hoped was that her stomach growl would not be mistaken for an angry dog by Eren and his neighbours. After looking around and making sure that no one had heard her horrible call of hunger, she pressed the doorbell and waited patiently for the door to open. She heard rapid footsteps gradually become louder behind the front door. Within seconds, the door flung open, revealing a boy in an apron.

"Hi, Sasha! You're early!"

"Good evening, Eren!" Sasha greeted with a cheerful grin. "I smell something delicious!"

"Oh… well…" Eren chuckled as he let Sasha in his house. "Dinner is still not ready yet. Do you mind if we eat around 7pm?"

"I don't mind! My stomach can wait," Sasha chirped and gently patted her tummy. She stepped into the house and inhaled deeply, enjoying the aroma that filled the foyer. "Oh boy, I can't wait to try your cooking."

Eren smiled at her.

"Not entirely my cooking, Sasha. I only helped out."

"What do you me-"

"Eren! Is it your friend?" another woman's voice was heard shouting from the kitchen which was not within Sasha's view. The brunette was hundred per cent sure that it did not belong to Mikasa. It definitely was…

"Yes, Mum!" Eren shouted back and signalled Sasha to put her shoes on the shoe rack and have a seat on the couch in the living room. "Sasha, I'm sorry. Can you wait for me a little while? I will get some drinks for you. What do you li-"

"Oh!" the female voice was heard again, this time sounding closer and like a soft surprise squeal.

Sasha tilted her head to catch a glimpse of the woman who had just emerged from the kitchen. The woman was gorgeous and she looked like she was in her mid-forties. Not to mention, her dark green eyes were so pretty and she had high cheekbones and a small sharp nose; Eren really took after his mother's facial features, except that he had a slightly wider jawline.

Sasha immediately greeted the woman with a small wave, "Good evening, Mrs Jaeger! I'm Sasha Braus, Eren's friend."

"Hello, Sasha. Nice to meet you!" Carla said with a wide smile before tugging Eren by his arm. "Wow, Eren. I thought it was a boy whom you're inviting over."

Shocked by her words, Eren turned to his mother and retorted, "What?! Why would you assume that? I told you that my project partner was a girl!"

"So, you weren't kidding!" Carla exclaimed.

"Why would I lie to you, Mum?"

"Because you always scare off girls. The only friend you have over the years is Armin!"

"That's mean! Why do you and Dad always say that? I have other friends from university," the boy argued.

"And you have never invited anyone else other than Armin."

"Well… I do now, right?" Eren's voice dropped as he glanced at Sasha awkwardly, wishing that she was not listening to their embarrassing conversation. But Sasha continued to plaster a warm smile as if she was not bothered at all. Feeling a warm heat gushing up his neck to his cheeks, he shifted his gaze away from her and looked at his mother again. "Anyway, I'm going to get some drinks for Sasha. We should hurry up with the dinner preparation."

"I'd like to have plain water. Thank you," Sasha requested in a polite voice.

"Sure."

"Oh yes, Sasha, would you like to try some of my homemade mango juice? I have made plenty!" Carla interrupted Eren with a gleam in her eye.

 _Mango juice!_

Sasha tightened her jaw and gave the older woman the smallest smile she could muster, trying to control her excitement and suppress the urge to scream 'yes' like a hungry child. She needed to show that she was not a little hungry monster who loved food more than anything else in the world.

She nodded and replied Carla, "Sure, I'd love to try that. Homemade fruit juice is often the best."

"Aww. You're just like Armin!" Carla chuckled. "Do you know Armin? He is Eren's best friend."

"Yes. He's my friend too. He helps me out with my studies."

"He's very smart, isn't he?" Carla remarked as she turned to face her son again. "Eren, I will prepare the drinks and dinner. Why don't you and Sasha do whatever you guys need to do?"

"Huh, wait, I can prepare the dri-"

Carla grabbed Eren's upper arms and gave them a light shake. With a small wink, she whispered to him, "Have fun! Don't keep your guest waiting."

Feeling speechless and defeated by his mother's strange enthusiasm, Eren let out a soft sigh and removed his apron. After his mother took that apron from him, she returned to the kitchen to prepare the mango juice for both her son and his guest. While waiting for the juice to be served, Eren led Sasha to his bedroom which he had been cleaning diligently since the night before and began their project discussion at his study table. In Sasha's eyes, his room was way neater than hers. While she liked to leave her newly washed clothes hung on the chair, she could not see a single piece of clothing lying anywhere visible in his room. Books were arranged neatly on his shelf. The floor was obviously mopped not too long ago as she could still smell the floral scented detergent. She wondered how long ago had she last mopped her own room. Was it before Eren's birthday? Ew, that was almost two weeks ago. She had to start cleaning her room and the common areas in her dormitory this weekend.

"So, these are the websites of the preschool centres which I have found and all of them meet the requirements. Their contact numbers are all in our word document. You may want to take a look at their websites and decide which preschools you want to call up," Eren proposed as he scrolled down the word document on his computer.

"Thanks," Sasha responded and took the mouse from him. Seeing that he had found a list of thirty websites, Sasha's jaw dropped in surprise. "Oh my gosh, Eren. You found so many! All we need are five preschools."

Eren raised his eyebrows defensively and explained, "Hm? Isn't this a good thing? We have more options to choose from and… just in case we get rejected by some centres."

"Yes, yes, it's a good thing. I'm just surprised that you can find so many preschools."

"Internet."

"Are you sure you didn't find some preschools from another continent?" Sasha teased and then chuckled at her own joke.

Eren narrowed his eyes at her before a smirk made its way to his face. "Well, you will find out whether my eyes are so bad that I couldn't read the addresses or not."

Sasha laughed. "Alright then. I better open my eyes even bigger so we won't end up visiting another continent!"

Just then, a light knock on the door was heard. Eren turned to face the door and said, "Come in."

The door slowly swung open, revealing Mikasa carrying a small blue tray with two glasses of iced mango juice on it. Upon seeing Sasha, Mikasa smiled at her and walked into the room. Eren stood up from his seat and went over to take the tray from Mikasa.

"Hi Sasha," Mikasa greeted in a soft voice.

"Good evening!" Sasha greeted back in a loud cheery voice. "Sorry, I didn't know that you were already home because I didn't see you earlier."

"Ah… I was in my room, doing some workout. I didn't notice that you came too until Mother told me to help her out with the cooking."

Eren placed the drinks on the desk in front of the computer and handed the tray back to his sister. He added with a small shrug, "Mikasa always listens to music when she does her workout. All noises will be blocked out."

"Music keeps my inner rhythm going during exercises," Mikasa corrected. "Oh, and Mother kept harping on the fact that you invited a girl to our house, Eren."

Eren let out a low groan and muttered, "She thinks that I don't have any other friends."

"Can't deny that if not for Armin," said Mikasa with a nod.

"Hey, hey, it's not true, alright?"

"To be honest," Sasha joined in their conversation with an awkward smile as she looked down shyly. "I wouldn't have met all of you, including Marco and Jean… if not for Armin."

Mikasa raised her eyebrows in puzzlement and asked, "You met Jean on the first day of school, right?"

"Yeah, but we didn't talk much after that day because we fought over a potato and two eggs. Through Armin, we kinda… become friends? Just that we still argue with each other over little things…"

Upon hearing that, Mikasa chuckled softly in response. Both Eren and Sasha glanced over at her, feeling a little bewildered by her reaction. Seeing the weird looks on their faces, Mikasa held back and shot them a small frown.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Sasha quickly answered. "I guess Jean and I are quite annoying most of the time, but I can't say that we hate each other either." Then, she paused for a brief moment before continuing with a disgusted face, "And Connie kept saying that we were a couple or something like that in our past lives. That's gross, I swear."

Mikasa tugged the tray behind her back and mumbled softly, "Hmm… You two were extremely close friends though…"

Not understanding what she was mumbling about, Sasha kept her silence as she looked blankly at her friend. As if Eren knew what was going on, the boy looked away with the same dull look which Mikasa usually wore when she was not interested in something she did not like to hear. He moved past Mikasa and headed to the door.

"Thanks for the drinks, Mikasa. We can chat later during dinnertime," he said.

He opened the door wider and gently tugged Mikasa's sleeve, signalling her to leave. Mikasa turned to look at him with a thin line forming between her brows, appearing to be worried about something. Again, Sasha did not understand what was going on between the two of them. Since it could be just a sibling or family issue, Sasha decided to ignore the stare which the both of them were giving each other.

"Alright," Mikasa mumbled softly again.

She stepped out of the room and placed her hand on the knob, preparing to close the door. Her facial features immediately relaxed as she looked at her brother again, and whispered something to him in a very soft voice to which the brunette could not hear. All she could hear was Eren's slightly louder gruff voice, telling her not to say anything weird. Then, Mikasa shrugged and closed the door behind her. When Eren returned to his seat next to Sasha, the two of them continued their project discussion as if nothing had just happened although Sasha could feel her heart racing due to the tense atmosphere from earlier. After deciding which preschool centres to call up, Sasha opened another word document and showed her partner what she had done regarding the activities which she wanted to carry out. Thankfully, Eren agreed with the plan and they quickly began to sort out their proposal and the materials needed.

Dinnertime came in about less than half an hour with delicious dishes laid out on the dining table. There were pork cutlets in mushroom gravy, potato and carrot broth, stir-fried butter-coated green beans, and poached eggs.

Sasha, who had been trying her best to stop her stomach from growling too loud since she entered the house, felt her legs turn to jelly at the glorious sight of food before her eyes. The food seemed to call out to her, inviting her to the table and ready to be feasted on. It would be an exaggeration for Sasha to say that the broth appeared to sparkle brilliantly under the warm light, but it did. In her eyes, anything and everything edible sparkled when hunger struck.

"Oh dear, our guest must be hungry," Carla said with a gentle laugh after noticing the brunette staring hungrily at the food. "I'm sorry that I took quite a while to prepare, Sasha. I tried my best to return home earlier today to cook since I heard that Eren would be inviting a friend over."

"No, it's okay! Thank you for the dinner. I wasn't actually very hungry," Sasha lied nervously, earning a doubtful stare from Eren and Mikasa. "But the food looks so delicious! I can't wait to taste them!"

"Aww!" Carla beamed at the brunette as she pulled out a chair for Sasha, signalling her to have a sit. "Please dig in!"

After everyone had sat around the table and said their graces, they started digging in the food. As soon as Sasha's teeth sank into the crispy pork, she entered a state of bliss. The meat was still so tender and juicy despite it being deep fried. Not only that, the mushroom gravy seemed to compliment well with the mild saltiness of the meat. She had never eaten such delicious cutlet before! Who knew that mushroom could go well with deep-fried food? Sasha hungrily sliced a larger portion of the meat and popped it into her mouth.

"How is it?" Carla asked Sasha upon seeing her beaming blissfully as she quickly chewed and took another hungry bite of the meat. Carla could tell that the brunette was extremely hungry although she had claimed that she wasn't. Eren was right. Their guest liked meat a lot.

Sasha snapped out of her reverie, almost forgetting that she was having dinner with the Jaegers. Embarrassed, she lowered her head to hide a blush and her chewing slowed.

"It's very delicious," Sasha answered bashfully. "It is my first time eating cutlet in mushroom gravy, so I'm surprised that these two can go well with each other. I like it."

Carla chuckled. "Jägerschnitzel."

"Jäger… schnitzel?" Sasha echoed quizzically.

"Yes, the dish's name," Carla said.

Sasha gasped. "A family recipe?"

For a moment, Sasha honestly thought that the name of the dish was related to the Jaeger family. But she could see Eren bit his lower lip, seemingly trying to hold back a laugh. On the other hand, the corner of Mikasa's lips quirked up, obviously hinting to Sasha that she was wrong. Carla shook her head in response.

"Nope, it's a traditional dish. I often make this for my two kids there." Carla shifted her gaze towards Eren and Mikasa who were sitting at the opposite side of the table from her and Sasha. "They like this a lot."

"Because it has the _Jäger_ spirit and it pumps me up," joked Eren, earning a hearty laugh from Carla and deadpanned look from Mikasa who was clearly unamused by his random remark.

However, Sasha was the only one who went along with his little carefree joke as she said, "For the next hunting trip?"

"Yes! Isn't that what the _Jägers_ do? We are the hunters after all."

 _A wonderful wordplay!_ Sasha inwardly squealed at how he had smoothly played along with her nonsensical response like how she and Connie usually did together. She brought a piece of the cutlet towards her mouth with a fork and grinned cheekily at Eren.

"I better finish this wonderful charm so I can go on a hunting trip as well. Don't forget to bring me along."

Everyone fell silent this time. Not liking the sudden awkwardness, Sasha gazed at them with a confused look as she carefully placed her fork back on her plate. Did she say something wrong again? Oh, how she wished that she could take back everything she had just spouted. She could not believe herself. A moment ago, she wanted to make a good impression on Carla. But she had probably said too much and made herself look like an idiot At the corner of her eyes, she noticed Mikasa looking down, staring at her food with her usual unreadable expression. She shifted her gaze to Carla and noticed an awkward smile plaster on her face as the older woman looked at her son. Eren, on the other hand, lowered his head and was gently poking a thinly sliced mushroom with his fork, looking very uncomfortable. Furthermore, although it was very vague from her point of view, she could see his left ear turning light pink. It reminded her of that time when he had struggled to help her put on the new armguard. Was he embarrassed? Did she accidentally say something that embarrassed him? Many questions began running through her mind as she observed the boy becoming more and more awkward at each passing second.

 _No, no, no, no!_

"I was joking!" Sasha exclaimed, capturing everyone's attention again. Her voice dropped as she continued, "But the cutlet is really good… sorry, I can't help it."

Carla turned to Sasha with a surprised look, and queried, "Why are you apologising?"

 _That's because I had said something weird_? Sasha pondered. She actually did not know why everyone became silent and awkward after she jokingly told Eren to invite her to a make-believe hunting trip. Maybe they thought that she was making a serious comment. _Darn it_ , her stupid mouth could not stop saying weird things every now and then. The only way to resolve the awkwardness she had created was obviously apologising. If not, what should she say to them?

Suddenly, Mikasa spoke up, "Sasha, there's nothing to be sorry about. There is nothing wrong with being overjoyed after eating a good piece of meat."

"Erm…" Sasha swallowed hard.

Then, Mikasa faced Eren and nudged his arm with her elbow, making him lower his head even more to hide his flustered face. She chided, "Eren, stop making this awkward. You should be glad that our guest is liking the meat you seasoned this morning."

Eren shook his head and muttered softly, "No, it's not that… I'm not awkward, okay. I didn't do anything this morning. Stop saying weird things, Mikasa."

"Eren helped to make this?" Sasha interjected as she glanced at the boy in awe. "It tastes really good, Eren!"

Eren looked up and smiled sheepishly at her. "Thank you. But Mum was the one who did the rest of the preparation. I did nothing much, really."

Carla leant forward against the table while narrowing her eyes at her son. She said, "No way, Eren did more than just seasoning the meat. He also m-"

"Wow, Mum, the mushrooms are so good too!" Eren chimed in with a wide grin, looking as if his awkwardness had just been washed away. He began stuffing his mouth with the sliced mushrooms and hummed happily. "Dad has to try this later, Mum. Please save some for Zeke too."

"Yup, I did… Don't worry," Carla assured him before turning to look at Sasha. Another gentle smile plastered on her face as she reached out to the serving spoon lying next to the plate of green beans which had not been touched yet. "Sasha, please try the green beans!"

Knowing that Carla was intending to scoop up some green beans for her, Sasha immediately dropped her utensils and took the serving spoon from her. She grinned at the older woman and said, "Thanks. I can do this myself, Mrs Jaeger."

The green beans were certainly delectable. As soon as she sank her teeth into the stalks, she could feel the buttery juice burst out of them and coat her tongue. She hummed, enjoying the wonderful gustatorial paradise in her mouth. She hadn't had such good food ever since she returned from her hometown, and the food which Carla had prepared was totally different from what she would normally buy and eat in the school's canteen and at nearby food stalls. Although she hated to admit it, she envied Eren and Mikasa for having a cool mother who could cook delicious food for them every day.

Next, she went on to try the potato and carrot broth. It looked equally appetising and she was so certain that it would taste as great as the pork cutlet and the green beans. She could smell hints of onion and garlic in the thick yellow broth sprinkled with spring onion. She had eaten different types of broth before in her entire food expedition. Each of them had a unique taste and could not be compared with one another even if they had the same dish name. But one thing for sure, they had never smelt so garlicky like this broth in front of her. Even so, it was not a bad smell.

She took a sip of the warm broth and let her tongue take in the new exciting flavour. It tasted so good, yet felt strange and familiar after swallowing the liquid down her throat. She scooped up a small piece of potato from the broth and ate it. The strange indescribable feeling mounted and her heart clenched painfully as she chewed on the soft potato. She thought that she had never come across this broth before, but her mind was telling her that she did. She had eaten this before, a long time ago, and she had enjoyed it very much. She could hear joyful laughter resonating in her ears. She could hear someone calling her name in a chiding manner. She could hear her own voice screaming desperately like a madman for God knows what reason.

 _Not again, Sasha. Why now of all times?_

She truly could not help it but let her eyes slowly water at the sudden overwhelming happy and painful emotions boiling up within her chest. All she could think of at this very moment was no longer trying to suppress her emotions which she would usually do to avoid being seen as strange, but it was simply asking herself the same question over and over again as if the answer was beginning to lie within herself.

 _When did this happen, Sasha Braus?_

* * *

 **Hey there! Happy New Year (although I am late)! May 2019 be a great and exciting year for all of you! I'm finally back from my short hiatus. Sorry for the wait. Hope you like this chapter!** **I would like to thank** _yachimizu029_ **,** _pureunicorntears_ **,** _Miqila_ **, and** _Wakey_ **for reviewing the previous chapter.**

 **With regard to the spam reviews by a guest, I will delete them over my upcoming school break. It is annoying to have 1.2k+ spam reviews and I have to manually delete them. I couldn't even report the person! Based on my email notifications, this person spent almost 3 hours doing so, during the witching hour (might be daytime for that person). Wow, he/she had so much time in his/her hands to do such a thing! For those who wrote to me asking why I spammed my review section with those nonsense, I would like to clarify that the spam was not done by me. I have more important things to do in life and school than creating silly problems for myself to resolve later. Thank you for your kind understanding.**

 **Preview of Chapter 19:**

"Go home, Sasha. Please."

 _Sasha lowered her head to hide a pout, feeling a little upset._ _His green eyes told nothing but shut their doors at her. Her chest tightened._

"Is that all you have to say to me…? After I came all the way here?"

 **See you again in the next chapter!**


	19. Chapter 19

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter** **19**

Levi could not believe what he had done. He could have spent his precious night cleaning up his living room and drinking a cup of hot tea to relieve himself from work stress. But there he was, standing at the entrance of the Titan Museum which he vowed to himself not to set foot at. He wanted to leave this place, yet his legs were not moving even if he wanted them to.

He sighed. "Why am I doing this?" he asked himself for the fourth time since he boarded the bus to get to the museum.

 _Because you are curious._ A voice in his head would reason his action to which Levi would shake his head in annoyance, disagreeing that stupid reasoning. There was nothing more stupid than doing something that did not concern him at all.

Two minutes had passed painfully and he was still standing under the evening moonlight without moving an inch from his spot. A worker peeked through the glass door of the entrance, giving Levi a curious stare at first. But the worker's eyes later widened in fear and he vanished behind the door frame. Levi crooked an eyebrow at the scene before him, dismissing the fact that he had just scared off the worker with his irritated face. The next moment, a tall woman in a white laboratory coat appeared behind the glass door with a large ring file in her hand. He saw her eyes scanning him from head to toe in suspicion before pushing the door open. Her face lit up for a brief moment but she immediately put on a frown as if he was not welcomed here.

"So, what is the guy who went around bossing me how to treat a patient standing outside my house?" Hange asked.

"Your house?" Levi scoffed.

Hange nodded and proclaimed proudly, "Yeah, I eat and sleep here!"

"Typical," Levi mumbled softly to himself. Knowing her, she could sleep anywhere in her workspace without any regard. "And I didn't boss you around, Four Eyes."

"Did you just call me Four Eyes? _Again?_ " Hange grunted. "You're so mean. I thought we are friends!"

Levi mused, "Since when?"

"Since that day our eyes met," Hange said with a wide playful grin, but her smiled dropped upon seeing him look away disinterestedly. She crossed her arms and continued in a firm voice, "Okay, jokes aside. Let's be straightforward here."

Levi did not think that he was beating around the bush with her as far as he knew. He shifted his gaze back to her again and waited for her to continue whatever she wanted to say to him.

"You see, I'm a broke-ass mother of two lovely kids," Hange began in the most cringe-worthy, piteous voice Levi had ever heard, especially coming from her mouth.

"So?" Rather than thinking about how cringy Hange was looking right then, Levi was flooded with the thoughts about Hange being a mother. Hange, a mother? Frankly, he had never imagined her becoming one since she was so obsessed with her work to even think about starting a family. But anyway, he would like to see how parenting worked for her.

"No one will take care of Bean and Sonny if I am not around," Hange pretended to weep.

Levi did not know if he should laugh or remain unaffected by the names of her children. Even in this lifetime, this woman could come out with such creative names.

"Who's the one who needs to get straight to the point?" Levi said impatiently, not seeing why and how her children would concern him. After all, this was the second time he and Hange met. They were not close enough to be talking about family matters.

"Straight to the point, huh. I guess you are not the type who likes small talk. Fine," Hange muttered, sounding a little disappointed. "Long story short, if you are looking for me just to sue me for recruiting your employee, just give up! I did nothing wrong because she was the one who applied this on her own accord!"

Levi frowned. "What crap are you talking about?"

"Your employee! Sasha Braus!"

"Uh-huh?"

"She applied for a job opening as my research assistant!" Hange exclaimed as she slapped the cover of her file. "The proof is in here!"

"Oh." Levi was not surprised. He knew that Sasha would apply for this job even if she did not tell him anything. He was the one who recommended her to do so anyway. "Isn't that good, Four Eyes? At least you got an applicant."

Hange took a step back in surprise and asked cautiously, "Aren't you going to sue me?"

"Why would I?"

"Then, why are you here?" Hange asked again, looking perplexed.

Levi shook his head with a sigh. "Speaking of customer service, you are really bad at it. Is this how you treat your visitors?"

 _Hold on._ Hange froze, carefully analysing what he had just said and making sure that she hadn't heard him wrong. If he was not here to confront her, that could obviously mean only one thing. _Oh!_

Flustered, she crossed her arms again and defended herself, "It is not my fault, I swear! You were glaring at my assistant. And you look as if you were trying to kill me! Then, I thought about that girl and how you were going to report me to the police!"

Levi deadpanned, "No, I didn't. And I would have called the police first instead of coming here to talk to you."

Hange gasped, "You have seriously scared me!"

"It's your fault for jumping into conclusions too quickly."

Hange groaned loudly as she immediately stood aside and let Levi in the museum. After paying for the entrance fee which was discounted by a twenty per cent for being Hange's 'friend', she led him around the galleries while talking effusively about her interesting findings. Levi was quiet the whole time as he scanned the familiar artefacts behind the glass panels. Some artefacts did not have in-depth descriptions like the others, partly due to the fact that Hange had not discovered their true purpose and functionality yet. For someone who did not have much evidence and sources supporting her research, being able to connect most of the artefacts together to tell a story was commendable. If not for the First Regional War, everything would be so easy to figure out for Hange. But in 2000 years, he doubted that the _books_ would still be readable with the papers crumbling upon touch unless they were preserved in right conditions. He wondered if there was a possibility that some of those books were still hidden somewhere at the place where he had last seen them at, a supposedly safe place for refuge and hiding from the rest of the world. _Her home._

The titan statue was the most horrendous sight he had ever encountered for the past thirty years he had lived. Human, yet not so human. He could feel irritation and anger boiling in his chest as he stared into the mischievous eyes of the titan. Illusions of the past or not, he could readily envision everyone's death all over again. He could vividly remember himself standing near a pile of debris while he helplessly watched the wind blow out the thinnest flame _she_ had. The sun set just when he had finally come in terms with his feelings, leaving him with nothing else other than her two broken wings of freedom. Because of the titans, he had lost the people he had held so dear.

The last gallery he was going to visit was absolutely intriguing. The mere sight of the sign outside of the gallery was enough to make him feel interested in finding out which soldiers' portraits were installed behind the entrance door. As soon as he stepped into the gallery with Hange, he was greeted with familiar faces whom he had known too well. Walking past several portraits on the wall as Hange led him through the possible names of the notable soldiers in history, Levi continued to keep his silence as he briefly skimmed through some of the details about the person. Again, he must commend the researcher for managing to get most, _not all_ , of the facts right. The only portrait she had gotten the most accurate description for was Queen Historia. Most of the portraits did not have a name attached to them, not even a one-liner sentence about who they were or what they did was written. _What a pity,_ Levi thought to himself. 2000 years later, everyone was forgotten. Worst of all, the suffering and pain of the past had become tales and legends. Moreover, the existence of titans did not seem real at all.

Remembering when he first stepped into the main house of the Ackerman family, he was just an unfortunate orphan who was taken in by his grandparents and had no recollection of his past. His innocent and blissful childhood living with his grandparents and his young uncle did not last as soon as he secretly entered the basement during a game of hide-and-seek with an older girl whom he used to call _big sister_. The constant nightmares he had been having once in a blue moon since he was three years old had become more real than he had thought to be. The first thing that came into his mind was the realisation that his nightmares weren't just crazy dreams made up by his highly imaginative mind. He could immediately recognise the portrait of a middle-aged man on the wall for himself. He could also recognise the ugly sketch of a lady next to his portrait and there was only one person he had ever known who could have that name. _It was that soldier who had once cried over his injured body, foolishly thinking that he was dying when she herself was equally bruised and fractured badly._

"So, based on my educated guess and the only information I have, I think that man is the Humanity's Strongest Soldier," Hange said confidently as she signalled Levi to follow her to the far corner of the gallery.

"What?" Levi felt his throat tighten as he walked towards Hange who was pointing eagerly at a portrait next to her. There was no way the portrait of the Humanity's Strongest Soldier would be in the hands of the researcher. He was so sure that it was still in the main house where he had grown up in.

As he moved closer, the portrait became clearer and more visible to him. There was no mistaking it. It was really _him_. Levi stopped right in his tracks and narrowed his eyes at the portrait. He clenched his fists around the strap of his sling bag, trying to suppress the rush of anger that was flooding his senses.

"This was given to me by a kind man. He said it was from the main house of the Ackerman's family," Hange began explaining, not noticing the change in Levi's demeanour. "Besides, I managed to find a source about the Ackermans. Apparently, they were the byproduct of titan science in the past. It sounds crazy, you know. I read that they were super cool and powerful. They served the royalty but something happened which led the majority of them to their deaths. The most notable Ackerman was apparently called the Humanity's Strongest Soldier at that time. Piecing everything together, that soldier might be this gloomy little chap in this picture!"

Then, Hange turned to Levi with a big smirk, looking extremely satisfied by her own discoveries and waiting for Levi's comment on it. But her smirk was immediately wiped off upon seeing Levi's darkened face. With a concerned look, Hange asked cautiously, "What happened? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, Hange." Levi glanced at the researcher, who stiffened at the sound of her name being called. "By any chance…"

He paused and looked away with a small frown. Should he say it? If he did, would it be suspicious that he knew something about the portraits? So far, only a few people knew the existence of the portraits and they were those who lived in the main house.

"By any chance what?" Hange queried in puzzlement.

Levi looked at her again and lightly shook his head, trying his best to relax the tense folds on his forehead. However, Hange wasn't buying his silence for an answer when he was clearly looking as if he was offended by her words. She crossed her arms and carried on probing him to continue whatever he had wanted to say.

"C'mon! Tell me! Did I say something that frightened you? Or amazed you? Or, or, or you are too speechless by how remarkable my research is!"

"No, Four Eyes, I can't say that it is remarkable," Levi blurted, earning a loud groan of dismay from the taller woman. "But I must say that I'm impressed by how much information you have gathered. It isn't easy, but at least you've tried."

Hange's eyes widened in surprise. She did not expect him to admit that he was impressed by her hard work. Not many people appreciated her research since there was not much evidence supporting the existence of titans. Furthermore, words of encouragement and support were rarely received, especially from people who seemed hard to please like Levi. An awkward laugh escaped her lips as she clasped her hands together.

"I can't remember your name, but thank you!" she said happily.

Sighing away, Levi pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head again. So, all this while, Hange had no idea what he was called. After all the hassles he had put her through because of his co-worker, as well as the earlier senseless conversation outside the museum, Hange still could not register his name in her mind.

"Levi," he said and let out another sigh. "At least take some effort to remember people's name."

"I do!" Hange retorted. "I usually remember the names of people whom I know I will be seeing again."

"I see." Levi nodded understandingly. "So, I guess you weren't expecting yourself to see me again."

"Honestly, yes… No, I mean no! The world is so small, of course, we are bound to cross pa-"

"Such shitty self-proclaimed friend you are, Four Eyes," Levi interjected in a monotone.

"Scratch the _shitty_. So, you regard me as your friend now?"

"Maybe."

Hange beamed widely.

"Anyway, about what I wanted to say earlier," Levi began, making up his mind regarding the portraits. Since this would be his last time seeing those portraits, he might as well stop hiding and allow himself to break the walls around him. After all, he had already seen _her_. Hence, there was no need for _her_ portrait to satisfy his longing for her lost existence. Knowing that these portraits were in the good hands of Hange, he could rest assured that they would be well kept. "Where is the other portrait?"

Hange furrowed her brows. "The other portrait?"

"Yes, the one attached with the portrait of this strongest soldier."

Hange snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "Ah, Alexandra of Dauper!" But she soon put on a suspicious look, narrowing her eyes at Levi and hunching forward to match his eye level. "How do you know that the portraits were attached?"

"Where is it?" he demanded, ignoring her question.

"Not until you tell me ho-"

"My uncle is an Ackerman. He lives in the main house," Levi interrupted her impatiently. "He was the one who handed you these portraits."

"R-Really?" Hange straightened her back and gave Levi a doubtful look. "So, are you an Ackerman? Really an Ackerman?"

"My mother was, but not my father."

"Oh!" Hange's eyes began gleaming with excitement again. "Do you inherit any superpower from your mother? Do you feel like a titan sometimes? Oh, wait…" Hange scanned him from head to toe and then let out a foolish laugh. "Right, you can't be a titan. Titans were very tall."

"We have no special powers or whatsoever, Four Eyes. Being part of titan science didn't make our ancestors taller either." Levi sighed irritably and asked her again," Answer my question now. Where is the other portrait?"

"Okay, okay, I will show you," the researcher replied in defeat and signalled him to follow her to the entrance where they had just entered from. While they were walking towards the entrance, Hange continued, "I don't have any information about Alexandra yet. I have been wondering if she was related to the Ackerman family. But she was certainly from Dauper. Do you know anything about her?"

Levi shook his head and replied, "No, I don't."

"Oh dear, what a pity," Hange muttered under her breath as she stopped right in front of the female soldier's portrait. "Though her portrait seems to garner some interesting responses from the visitors, I don't have anything else to share with them besides saying that it was found together with the portrait we saw earlier."

Levi stood before the portrait and solemnly gazed at the familiar drawing on the wall. He missed seeing it, but it did not matter much anymore as she was alive. He could see her every week. He could talk to her whenever he wanted to just by a push on the call button of his handphone. Everything was fine in this lifetime.

"It is strange…"

Levi looked at Hange at the corner of his eyes, wondering what was so strange about the portrait. He could see her concentrating hard at the picture with her arms crossed.

"Why do they look at her so sadly?" Hange muttered to herself aloud. "Is it because of the writings?"

"Do people look at this drawing with a sad look?"

"Uh, yes, some people," Hange confirmed with a nod, then she pointed at Levi. "They had this same look like the one you are having right now. Sad and forlorn, as if something feels missing… or not right."

Levi frowned at her. There was no way he was looking like that. He was not the type who would let out his emotions easily no matter how painful it was to let someone go. "Ridiculous," he said in a low voice.

Hange rested her hands on her hips and argued, "It's true! When I first met Sasha, she was staring at it rather intensely!"

"Who wouldn't when the drawing is so questionable?"

"A college student even wrote in his or her reflection that he or she could feel the pain the artist was experiencing. The feeling of sadness and missing someone."

Levi rolled his eyes. "Guess the student got a good grade for that?"

"That's not all. I met this guy who kept saying that he had seen this portrait before!" Hange said. "But later he claimed that he hadn't."

Levi scoffed, "It's impossible that he had seen the portrait when it has been in our basement for 2000 years."

Her shoulders dropped. She nodded understandingly and said in disappointment, "You're right. For a moment, I thought that he was an Ackerman or something was up since he really looked distressed that time. Maybe he knew something useful. Apparently not, I guess."

"Hm."

"Dr Hange!" a loud desperate voice suddenly echoed outside the gallery, startling the pair. Then, the entrance door swung open and a man ran inside the room with an anxious look.

"What happened?" Hange asked calmly.

"Bean and Sonny are missing!"

"What?!" Hange dropped her file and froze, feeling dumbfounded. Upon hearing her worker trying to explain how the two kids went missing from her study room, Hange pressed the sides of her head in exasperation and let out a high-pitched shriek. "Damn it! Did I forget to lock the cage this morning?"

Levi looked wide-eyed at Hange. _Did this woman lock her kids in a cage?_

"I don't know, Dr Hange. I only realise it a minute ago!" the man replied.

Looking at her watch on her left wrist, Hange instructed, "It's their feeding time. We have to find them quickly. We can't let them chew away our displays. Moblit, inform Mike about this."

 _Chew?!_ Levi was appalled.

"Okay!" the man responded quickly and hurriedly left the gallery.

Then, Hange turned to Levi with a serious look. "Sorry, Bean and Sonny are on the loose. Is it okay if I leave you for a while?"

"No problem," Levi assured her. "And I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear anything about you locking up your kids in a cage."

"Huh?" Hange looked puzzled for a brief moment before putting her palms against each other in a pleading manner. She apologised again, "I'm sorry. I can't talk to you right now, Levi. I need to go now. Talk to you later!"

After saying that, she rushed out of the gallery and left Levi alone in the large room filled with portraits. Levi turned to face the portrait of the female soldier and let out a soft chuckle.

"She and her habit of keeping little monsters as pets. Commander Hange hasn't changed much, huh." He smiled as he unknowingly reached out to touch the photo frame and traced the outline of the soldier's balled fist with his fingers. "Right, Sasha?"

-:-:-:-

"Sasha, are you all right?"

The brunette snapped out of her thoughts as she turned to Carla who had just called out to her in concern. Although she did not realise it, everyone at the table could clearly see how flustered she was looking after eating the potato and carrot stew. Her watery eyes were the most obvious sign of her distress. At the corner of her eyes, she could see Eren looking anxiously at Mikasa and his lips quivering as if he wanted to say something but was holding himself back. On the other hand, Mikasa was narrowing her eyes at Sasha. It was not a concern look like the one Carla was giving her. It was more like a look of confusion and suspicion.

"Oh my gosh. This is so good as well," Sasha said in a shaky voice and forced a weak smile at them, trying her best to pretend that she was fine. But again, her eyes were a dead giveaway of her emotions. Knowing that she had failed to prove that she was actually all right, Sasha then cracked up a little joke to ease the tension at the table, "Have you ever tasted something so good that you started crying? It is like love at first sight."

"No," Mikasa replied stoically. "Food is just food to me."

Sasha laughed as she knew that Mikasa was going to say that. She wiped her tears away and resumed eating the stew.

"This is so delicious," she muttered softly to herself. "And it reminds me of something."

"What thing?" Mikasa asked curiously.

Sasha looked up and shrugged. "I don't know how to say it but… I feel like I'm back home. With my family and friends."

"Is this stew common at your hometown?" Mikasa queried.

"No. This is the first time I tried it. It just has a homely feel to it, which reminds me of home. Strange, huh? I just came back from my hometown a few days ago, yet I'm feeling a little homesick," Sasha explained with a weak, tired smile. Truthfully, it did not remind her anything about her hometown. It reminded her of something else, something very welcoming of her presence and laughter, and something fun and loving. Like family, but not quite either. Like close friendships, but who were they?

Sensing a slight confusion and sadness in her voice, Carla put down her utensils and placed her hand on Sasha's shoulder. Startled by the warm contact, Sasha flinched slightly and turned to face the older woman in response.

"You know, Sasha," Carla spoke to her in a warm, gentle voice. "When I was a college student, I had to move out of my parents' house and rent an apartment with a friend near our school. Every special thing we encountered made us think about home. Either we missed our family and friends from our hometown or just wished that they were here with us enjoying the same kind of things we were doing. It's normal… so I can understand how it feels."

Sasha smiled and nodded understandingly. It was so true for her and Connie. Unlike Connie who would return to his hometown every now and then whenever he had the chance to, Sasha had chosen not to do so for a year. Although she did not mention anything about her homesickness to anyone, she really missed her father to the point of questioning herself if she had made the right choice for everything she had done. She could have done otherwise, choosing a college that was nearer to her hometown and perhaps not torturing herself with many working shifts during the holidays. But the thought of getting a better life for her father stopped her from doing all of those things.

"By the way, Eren…" Carla glanced at Eren with a small smirk playing on her lips as she pointed at her bowl of stew. "Why don't you share with us how you prepared this? I must agree that it is pretty good. Did Mikasa help you?"

Eren who had been so silent the whole time after he and Sasha had made the embarrassing hunter joke widened his eyes at his mother as if she had just let out his secret. _You don't have to say that_ , Eren mouthed to her in exasperation, not wanting her to indulge into the topic on his cooking any further. Earlier, he had tried to stop his mother from mentioning that the stew was made by him. However, it appeared that Carla was not letting his hard work go unnoticed by their guest. Worst of all, Sasha seemed like she was going to cry after eating his stew. According to Mikasa, this stew was a special dish which she had learnt from a friend and she had guaranteed him that Sasha would enjoy it. But no, the word 'joy' was not written anywhere on her face. In his eyes, she looked mildly disturbed. Meanwhile, Sasha was looking at him in awe, admiring how amazing he was. To her, anyone who could cook delicious dishes was godsend and amazing.

"He made the broth himself," Mikasa answered in Eren's stead. "I only checked to see how he was doing."

Eren could not deny the fact that Mikasa had made him prepare the broth all by himself after telling him what to do. _Knowing Sasha, she probably has a crush on a number of cooks who had served her delicious food_ , he remembered Mikasa say thoughtfully to herself after he had thought of giving up on making a potato dish. It did not matter to him if that random comment was supposed to be an indirect remark about how easily he had given up on preparing dinner for their guest or just a passing comment that was not meant to be heard by him. _Heck_ , that comment had caused him to start picking up the knife again and started chopping the ingredients. The broth was not as difficult to make as he had initially anticipated, so it was a relief that he could manage and do it well for the first time without screwing up. Or so he thought?

"You're so amazing, Eren. Honestly, I didn't know that you can make such an amazing dish. I wish I can cook like you," Sasha praised him with a wide toothy grin, giving him weird butterflies. Yet again, a strange feeling which he could not fathom. Sasha smiled at Carla and added, "And Mrs Jaeger is a great cook too! I won't mind eating these every day if our school canteen has these dishes on the menu."

Carla chuckled. "Thank you, Sasha. I'm so glad that you like our cooking. If you like, you are always welcome here to have a meal-"

"Geez, Mum!" Eren cut in, feeling so embarrassed that his mother had just openly invited Sasha for another round of awkward dinner, lunch, or whatever it was that she was planning.

"-as a friend of Eren and Mikasa," Carla continued to speak, regardless.

"O-okay, M-Mrs Jaeger."

"Sasha, you know, you don't have to force yourself to come here since it takes time to travel to-and-fro," Eren said firmly to her before turning to his mother. "Mum, Sasha is very busy every day. She has a part-time job and practises archery, so she probably won't have the time to come here again."

Sasha lowered her head to hide a pout, feeling a little upset. He was right. She was a busy person who did not even have time for her own family, and here she was actually agreeing to visit the Jaegers for another mealtime. How greedy could she get when it was about food? Furthermore, Eren seemed so against the idea of her visiting their residence again. Forgetting her gentle persona, she picked up the chicken meat with her bare hands and roughly tore a large portion of the meat with her teeth. She did not know why she suddenly felt so disturbed by his words. It felt as if he did not want her here even if he did not exactly say it. Did she offend him? Was it because she teared up after eating his broth? Oh no, she teared up not because of that!

 _Go home, Sasha. Please._

With the chicken meat still in her hands, she slowly looked up and found his green eyes staring back at hers. They were the same as the last time back when they were playing the Truth or Dare game. Those eyes told nothing but shut their doors at her. Her chest tightened.

 _Is that all you have to say to me…? After I came all the way here?_

She immediately broke away from his gaze and shook her head to get rid of that foreign voice in her head.

"Eren's right. I am always busy." Sasha smiled at Carla. "Thanks for the thought though, Mrs Jaeger. I'm already blessed with wonderful food tonight. I can't ask for more, can I?" She let out a soft laugh.

The older woman next to her returned a warm smile and said, "Don't worry about it."

After dinner, Mikasa and Eren helped Carla to wash the dishes while Sasha volunteered to dispose of the filled trash bag in the large bin outside of their house. Although Carla kept telling her to have a sit in the living room and let her do it instead, Sasha went ahead and grabbed the trash bag from the kitchen. She was not planning to loaf away while everyone was cleaning up after their meal. As a guest, this was the least she could do for these kind people who had work hard to prepare dinner for her.

"You're so sweet. Thank you so much, Sasha." Carla said, finally giving in to her persistence.

"No problem, Mrs Jaeger."

Stepping out of the house was an instant relief for her. The heavy weight weighing down her shoulders was lifted off as soon as she breathed in the fresh evening air. Oh boy, ego depletion was at its work throughout the dinner. Acting like a prudent girl with her food was sure hard for her. In the end, she kind of gave up unknowingly and fiercely stuffed the chicken meat into her mouth and finished the broth within a few minutes. It was only when she had finished the food faster than the rest, then she realised that she had just gobbled her food down like a starving monster in front of Carla. When emotions were running high, Sasha's hunger could do wonders by overriding her consciousness, something she would sometimes regret later. It was not about the calories she would gain. Rather, she did not want to look terrible in front of certain people.

"Why are you always like this, Sasha?" Sasha groaned softly to herself as she walked over to the trash bin situated two houses away from the Jaegers' residence. She lazily threw the trash bag next to the bin, which was already filled up with dirty cans and several trash bags, and was about to walk away when she heard a soft thud. A few other trash bags had fallen off the bin and one of them burst open with random pieces of crushed papers rolled out of it. Sasha clenched her fists and groaned again, "Oh my gosh. No way."

Bending down, she started picking up the crushed papers and stuffed them back into the damaged trash bag. The more she stuffed them in, the more papers started to fall out of the bag. Annoyed, she stood up and started kicking the papers towards the bin. That was when she noticed something written on one of the crushed papers as the light from the street lamp shone on it.

 _Alexandra of  
_ _Till we meet_

"Alexandra?" Curious, she picked up the paper and uncrumpled the edge, revealing more words following those that she had seen.

 _Alexandra of Dauper  
_ _Till we meet again_

She knew that it was rather rude and disgraceful to check out things from the trash bin, especially writings from the previous owner. However, those words were too familiar to be ignored. She began uncrumpling the paper and pulling the sides to straighten it so that she could have a clearer view of what was on the paper itself. Whatever presented before her eyes sent chills down her spine. It was a drawing of _her_ , albeit not exactly the same as the one from the museum. The pose was the same. The facial expression of the lady was quite similar as well, except for the faint smile playing on her lips. She did not remember seeing Alexandra having a smile on her face, or maybe she had remembered it wrong since the last time she had seen it was weeks ago.

"Who drew you again, Alexandra?" she spoke in a playful whispering voice as if she was interacting with the lady drawn on the paper. "Isn't it strange that I'm seeing you in the trash this time?"

She looked around here, wondering which residence had disposed of this trash bag filled with crushed papers. Seeing other trash bins located between other houses metres away from her, she guessed that it was one of the three houses before her, including the Jaegers' residence.

"Sasha."

The brunette flinched. She immediately folded the paper into half and turned to the source.

"Mi-M-Mikasa?"

Her friend was standing behind her. It could be the dim street lights that were making Mikasa look a little scarier than usual. Her face and shoulders were tensed while her eyes seemed to be staring hard into hers.

"What are you doing?" Mikasa asked in a low voice.

"I…" Sasha looked at the folded paper in her hand, then at the pile of crushed papers next to the bin. "Uh… I accidentally knocked over a trash bag and everything fell out… So, uh, I'm cleaning the trash up."

Mikasa furrowed her eyebrows and continued to stare hard at Sasha, causing the latter to stiffen in anxiety. After a few seconds of silence, her shoulders relaxed a little and she sighed wearily. "Careless as ever, huh. Mother is worried and wondered why you were taking so long to throw the trash."

Sasha smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I'm almost done cleaning up."

"You don't have to do this. The workers will clean them up tomorrow morning," Mikasa said and signalled her to follow her as she turned to head back home. "Let's go back in."

Sasha nodded hesitantly. While Mikasa was walking away, Sasha unfolded the paper and took another look at the writings beneath the drawing. Sadness clouded her features.

 _To whoever you are from 2000 over years ago,_ _who are you?_

She shook her head and laughed weakly. That was stupid. Alexandra, a soldier, had died centuries ago. Thinking about her all the time was a waste of time and mental energy. Whoever had drawn her in this era was just being fascinated by the art piece in the Titan Museum, as she had been. But she was curious as to why this lady kept intruding into her mind. It could have been other portraits which carried more notable names and successes. Alexandra had none, however, _she_ resonated deeply in her.

 _Darn._

Sasha folded the paper again and inserted it into her pocket.

 _What the hell am I doing?_

This was so wrong of her to do this, she scolded herself. Sasha gritted her teeth as she pulled out the paper. But after doing so, her hand went against her guilty conscience and pushed it back into her pocket. Her hands were trembling nonstop as if she was stealing something from someone else when it was clearly nothing to be worried and feeling guilty about. It was literally trash.

A trash that was meant to be burnt in the incinerator.

A trash that was strangely a part of her.

"Sasha?" she heard Mikasa call out to her again.

Sasha jumped in fright and quickly dusted her blouse, pretending that she was trying to get rid of the dirt sticking on her clothes. Putting on a wide smile, she looked at Mikasa's dark figure standing next to her house gate and hurriedly jogged towards her.

"Coming!"

* * *

 **I finally rose from the dead and delivered a new chapter. I'm sorry again for this delayed chapter which was supposed to be updated earlier this year. As always,** **I would like to thank** _Miqila_ **,** _Laura fernandez_ **,** **and** _laura91ok_ **for reviewing the previous chapter.**

 **Preview of Chapter 20:**

"She is just a friend," Eren blurted and was immediately stunned by what he had just said. As he stared intensely at his fists resting on his thighs, a feeling of dread bottled up within him.

 _Why…?_

 **See you in the next chapter!**


	20. Chapter 20

**To Me from 2000 Years Ago**

* * *

 **Chapter 20**

When Sasha entered the house again after disposing of the trash, she saw Eren laying out his game console in front of the television and curiously walked towards him. Noticing her presence, Eren picked up a game from a little transparent box and showed the cover to her.

"Attack on Titan!" he sang cheerfully, earning a soft giggle from Sasha. She could not believe that he had decided to play the game before continuing with their project discussion. Well, _priorities_. He placed the game cover on her hands and leant a little forward towards her with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed at her. He said, "You can't back out now, can you?"

"Hmm…" Sasha looked up in deep thought. "What if I say that I don't feel like playing this today?"

"Huh? But you promised!"

"I'm really tired today, Eren."

"Okay. How about we play next week?"

Sasha gulped. Didn't he just say that she was a busy person who had no time to come over to his house in the future? He had totally forgotten about it since he really wanted someone, or rather specifically her, to play with him, hadn't he? She grabbed and pulled his hand towards her, and placed the game cover on his palm instead. "Just kidding. Go on, insert the cartridge into the console so we can start playing."

"Aren't you tired? You haven't taken a break today," he asked, sounding a little concerned.

Sasha shook her head. "Nope, I'm fine. In fact, I feel like trying out this game too. Let's see if the hype about this game is worth it, yeah?"

Eren smiled at her. He took out the cartridge and inserted it into his video game console. While waiting for the game to load, Eren and Sasha made themselves comfortable on the floor in front of the television with the game controllers in their hands and started chatting effusively about the gaming videos on _Attack on Titan_ which they had watched on the internet. Meanwhile, Mikasa brought her textbook out to read on the couch behind the pair.

Choosing the easy mode to play was a wise choice for starters. Despite being able to pick up the controls fast, Sasha's avatar was continuously chased by titans and was nearly killed by them eight times in a row. On the other hand, Eren seemed to be handling the game relatively well with only three counts of his avatar being grabbed by the titans. For some unknown reason, the titans were able to spot Sasha's avatar from afar each time she wanted to use her far-ranged sneak attack, and the titans would jump over buildings and try to grab her. Of course, she would run and use her vertical manoeuvering equipment to escape quickly by air. Unfortunately, the titans were faster than her. If not for a particular non-playable character, Team Captain Bruce Richardson, who kept saving them each time they were grabbed by the titans, Eren and Sasha would have to restart the game from the checkpoints many times.

"Oh my gosh! Not another titan! Stop targeting me!" Sasha whined upon seeing a titan leap through the air in an attempt to catch her after she had tried to sneak on it again. She immediately fled away in a haphazard manner, carelessly crashing into walls and falling into the canal of water. "Where is Bruce? I need Bruce!"

"C'mon, Sasha. Don't run away. Use this chance to attack it head-on!" Eren said as he furiously punched the buttons of his controller, trying to make his avatar move quickly towards the titan which was targeting Sasha. "Bruce can't always be saving you in the game."

"I'm trying!"

"Stop running away! Hop to that building. Yes, that one. Wait, you're still running! Why?!"

"Shhhh! I am looking for the right angle to attack it."

"No, no, no, no! Not this angle. You will crash into the building!" Eren dropped his controller and placed his hands above Sasha's hands, attempting to take control of her avatar. "Let me help you."

Annoyed, Sasha moved her controller upwards, breaking away from his hold. And she chided him, "Trust me, geez! I play games, remember? I know what I'm doing. You ca-Oh shoot it! Why the titans seem to be attracted to me?"

Another titan appeared out of nowhere, reaching out to Sasha's avatar. Eren immediately took control of his avatar again and prepared for a far range sneak attack. His avatar focused on the target nearest to Sasha and leapt through the air with two gigantic swords. With a slash, the titan's hand that was inches away from Sasha was amputated.

"Thanks, Eren!" Sasha distanced her avatar from the two titans and changed her weapons to a chainsaw. Unlike the blades she had been using, the chainsaw had higher damage but had low durability and required very close attacks. The chances of missing a target point were very high too. Sasha was willing to take the risk. "Eren, why don't you take that amputated titan? I will take the other titan with the big belly."

"Roger."

Sasha made her avatar run on the roofs on the low-level houses before hooking her gear onto the titan's shoulders and leaping towards its neck with the chainsaw. However, the attack did little damage as she pressed the button too early. Still in the air, Sasha retracted her gear and shot another hook at the titan's upper neck. Using up her last bit of gas, she flew towards the titan at high speed and successfully cut deep into the neck.

 _Mission Complete!_

 _Eren Jaeger: S rank (29 eliminations)_

 _Sasha HatesTitan: A rank (23 eliminations)_

 _Captain Bruce has another task for you._

 _Press X to continue._

"Yes! We did it!" Sasha dropped her controller and jumped on her feet in relief and triumph. Then, she knelt on the floor and shook her gaming partner's shoulders excitedly. "Oh my gosh, Eren! You did your final kill so well! You earned an S rank!"

"I-It was easy," Eren said proudly with a smirk.

"Right. It was supposed to be easy," Sasha's voice dropped, sounding disappointed. She quickly removed her hands from his shoulders and covered her eyes. "I can't imagine the moderate and difficult level, seriously. I'm so bad at this."

"You weren't that bad. I'm sure you will do better in the next task. Just don't run away each time a titan chases you."

"If only they will stop targeting me all the time! Why didn't they go to you instead?"

"Because you named your avatar _Sasha HatesTitan_?"

"As if the titans care about our names!"

"Why don't you change it to _LovesTitan_ instead?" Eren suggested playfully. "Oh wait. You can't name your avatar that. It will give the titans a wrong idea and they will chase you more."

Sasha frowned at him and lightly punched his upper arm, causing him to laugh heartily. She said in a low angry voice, mimicking the voice of Bruce Richardson, "Not _funneh_ , Mr Jaeger."

Eren burst out laughing again. "Eww, that sounds so familiar. Who are you trying to mimic? Bruce?"

"Ah-ha! I got an idea. I'm going to change my avatar's name to _Sasha LovesBruce_!" Sasha opened the character's profile to make an edit, ignoring the gaping stare Eren was giving her. She deleted her avatar's surname and keyed in the one she wanted to rename to.

"Are you serious? What for? I was kidding about changing your name, you know?"

"Do I look like I am kidding? If I'm going to name myself _LovesBruce_ , Bruce will come to me more often," Sasha replied, smirking to herself and mentally giving herself a pat on her back for being smart with names for once.

Eren gave her a weird look for a brief moment before selecting his avatar's profile as well.

"What are you doing?"

"Changing my name too, Miss _LovesBruce_."

"To what?" she asked.

"To _Eren HatesBruce_ ," he answered without thinking.

"He's not going to save you later, I swear."

"I don't care. I don't need his help anyway," Eren mumbled softly to himself. He keyed in _HatesBruce_ for his avatar's surname and saved the changes, together with Sasha's edit. Then, he said to her, "By the way, you don't even need his help. He isn't always with us, you know. What if he is so far away, like in our last mission? He didn't even come to save you earlier. Furthermore, the two of us should stick together so we can help each other out."

Sasha turned and stared hard at him. He looked away uncomfortably, avoiding her gaze.

"Wh-What?"

"What are you implying?"

Still avoiding her gaze, Eren asked again, "What do you mean?

"I'm still going to stick with _LovesBruce_ no matter what," Sasha whispered adamantly to him, knowing that he was trying to change her mind about giving a fanatic name to her avatar.

Eren shrugged. "Up to you. I don't care either."

Sasha nodded. After pressing the _X_ button as indicated in the checkpoint page, the game loaded the next story plot. During the wait, Sasha turned around and looked at Mikasa who had been quietly sitting behind them throughout the game. Mikasa's textbook was closed on her lap and she was staring at them with a bored look on her face. Suddenly recalling that she and Eren had been shouting and making lots of noises in the living room, she felt bad for Mikasa who had to bear their noises for the past one hour.

 _One hour…? Hold on._ Sasha looked at the time on her watch and her jaw dropped. It was already past 9 pm! Wow, time had passed so quickly without her realising it.

"Are you guys finally done shouting?" Mikasa remarked and let out a soft yawn. "I couldn't even read anything."

Eren turned to look at her and said dully, "Go back to your room and read, Mikasa. You don't usually read in the living room."

"Maybe she wants to play too?" Sasha thought aloud.

"Nah. She didn't even want to play video games with me even if I asked her. Only sometimes when she was very, very bored," Eren muttered as he turned to face the television again.

"Oh." Sasha looked apologetically at Mikasa and said, "Sorry for being too noisy. I promise we will be quiet later."

"It's okay. I don't feel like reading anything tonight anyway. I was watching the both of you playing the whole time."

Eren looked at his sister again and reminded her, "Just go back to your room if you find us too noisy, Mikasa."

"Geez, Eren! If Mikasa wants to stay here, just let her be," Sasha told him off.

"Yeah, Sasha's right," Mikasa agreed as she pushed her textbook away to the empty seat next to her and crossed her leg over the other. "I'm a little curious about the game after all."

Eren narrowed his eyes at her. "You told me that you weren't interested in the game when I asked you about it."

Mikasa nodded and said, "It's true. I am not really interested. But since the two of you are playing, it is better to keep watch."

His eyebrows rose a notch. "Keep watch?"

"Yes. So, you two won't do anything weird."

 _Weird?! Why do you mean?_ Sasha gawked at her friend. If Mikasa's definition of weird was fighting over a game, then it was certainly not something she should be worried about. As far as she could remember, her video gaming habits did not land her and Connie up fighting and bruising each other. She was very sure Eren would not end up fighting with Armin during gaming.

"I don't know what you mean by weird, but don't worry about us being weird, alright? Has Armin, Zeke, and I done anything weird so far?" Eren coincidentally spoke exactly what was on Sasha's mind. Sasha nodded in agreement with his questions although she had no idea about his gaming habits with Armin and the other person he had mentioned. Knowing Armin, he would probably give in to Eren or reason everything out to him and all things would be settled quickly. No violence would be incurred.

"I don't know why I kept getting goosebumps while the two of you were playing." Mikasa rubbed her palms against the cotton fabric on her arms and her shoulders trembled. "Especially you, Eren. I didn't know you have that in you all along."

This time, Eren fully turned around to face Mikasa, looking extremely confused by her random remark. With a slight hint of irritation in his voice, he asked her, "Have what?"

Looking away, Mikasa shrugged.

Eren groaned softly. "You're not making any sense tonight."

Mikasa shrugged again and rebutted, "Nothing makes sense anyway."

Sasha could see Mikasa's eyes suddenly seem forlorn as she said those words. She stole a quick glance at her gaming partner, then back at Mikasa. Why was it they were always saying and doing things she could not understand? Was it a sibling thing? As an outsider, she felt that she should not be asking Mikasa about what she meant by those words. But the sad look on her face worried her. What if Mikasa was actually feeling tired? What if Mikasa had something weighing her down her mind lately? Many thoughts ran through her head as she studied Mikasa's facial expression. Even though they were friends, Sasha always felt extremely distant from her, including everyone from her usual clique.

 _Stop running away…_

Eren's voice from earlier echoed at the back of her head. He was right. She should stop running away each time things became too difficult for her to handle or comprehend. She should reach out to her friends who had their own problems as well, like how Krista always reach out to her whenever she was distressed. Sasha opened her mouth, preparing to say something to her friend, but another voice in her head stopped her from speaking out her concern.

 _Go home, Sasha._

She froze. Her eyes travelled to her own hands resting on her lap. They were trembling although the tremors were not noticeable to the eyes of others if they did not pay close attention to them. She was always like this. Whatever was stopping her, her cowardly self could not walk past it no matter what.

"Sasha, you don't seem too well. Are you all right?" she heard Mikasa ask in a concerned voice.

Sasha looked up and forced a small smile, assuring Mikasa that she was fine. She was just tired, she convinced herself. Just then, she felt like going back to her dormitory to have a break from all the mental discomforts she was having since dinnertime.

"It's late after all. Do you want to stop playing?" Eren asked her, looking equally concerned by her long silence.

Sasha smiled reassuringly at him and nodded. "Yes, we should stop here for today. I feel so tired all of a sudden."

"Okay then. You have to get back before the curfew too. Can't get you into trouble for staying out late," Eren said while saving the game. Then, he stood up and walked over to his game console. He removed the cartridge and kept it inside the game cover. Remembering that they still had a few uncompleted tasks, he looked at Sasha again and clarified, "About our project, we only left the email drafts and the written proposal, right?"

"Yup. Do you want to do this now? We still have time."

"Uhh." He drew his brows together and shook his head. "It's alright. It's pretty late now and you're tired. How about we meet in school tomorrow morning before our lecture to work on them instead? After that, we can call up the preschool centres."

"Good idea," Sasha agreed with a smile.

"I will text you the timing and the meeting place later."

"Sure. Thank you, Eren."

Sasha stood up as well and grabbed her backpack. Before making her way to the foyer, she thanked and bade farewell to both Mikasa and Carla who was in the kitchen heating up some food for her husband. Then, Eren led her to the gate where they would say their goodbyes and depart. However, Carla was not going to let Sasha make a trip back to her dormitory by herself this late at night. So, she hurriedly went to the gate and surprised Eren with a light hit on his head with a wooden ladle. The lad yelped and his hands quickly covered his head in response.

"What the hell, Mum?!" he cried out, rubbing the spot where she had hit him.

"Are you going to let a young girl walk outside alone at night, Mr Eren Jaeger?"

"But she has a direct bus from the bus stop at the main street!"

"Yes, Mrs Jaeger. I can return back myself. It's less than an hour ride," Sasha said.

"See, Mum, she says so too!"

"I didn't raise you to be so ungentlemanly, young man," Carla chided as she waved the ladle in front of her son's face.

Eren turned his head away from the waving ladle and muttered in defeat, "Fine. I will go with her."

Carla beamed at his response and patted his shoulder. "That's better. Make sure that she's safe, okay?"

Seeing Eren walking back to the foyer to grab a pair of shoes, Sasha began to feel bad for him and also inwardly panicked at the thought of spending more alone time with Eren. _With Eren!_ Walking under the dark cloudy sky, sitting next to him throughout the bus ride, and him seeing her off outside the dormitory grounds… Oh dear, her head would definitely go dizzy halfway through the journey back to her little cave. No, her head was already spinning at these thoughts.

"Eren really doesn't have to do this, Mrs Jaeger. I know how to go back myself," Sasha continued to reject the kind offer.

With a gentle smile, Carla shook her head and insisted, "It's alright, Sasha. Please let Eren take you back."

"But-"

"Come on, let's go now," Eren's voice interrupted her. She saw him grab an umbrella near the doorstep and open the gate for the both of them. Having no other choice, Sasha finally accepted Eren's kind offer to take her back to her dormitory. After exchanging goodbyes with Carla, Eren and Sasha walked to the main street where the bus stop was.

Not surprisingly, the only thing she could remember throughout the journey back to her cosy dormitory was how silent and awkward they both were, with her trying to keep herself from dozing off in the bus by initiating a conversational topic with him. But it died seconds after his usual 'um's and 'uh's.

-:-:-:-

When Eren returned home, he found his father having his dinner and having a nice chat with his mother at the dining table, both laughing at something Carla had just spoken. Noticing his son step into the house, Grisha greeted him with a warm smile and called him over to the table to which Eren complied.

"Hey, Dad. How's your work?"

"Great as usual," Grisha replied.

Eren chuckled. "Does seeing sick people make you feel great?"

"Seeing people recover, that is," his father corrected him.

"So, Eren..." Resting her arms on the table, Carla leant forward and smiled at the boy. "Did Sasha return to her dormitory safely?"

"Of course, she did." Eren looked away and mumbled softly to himself, "I wouldn't be here if she did not."

"Hmm."

Eren glanced at his mother with a frown. Seeing her looking at him with a knowing smirk, her usual way of telling her kids that she knew something was up with them, Eren restlessly glanced around the dining area before stammering a response, "W-wh-what… What's with th-that look?"

Carla narrowed her eyes while still keeping that look which Eren began to find annoying, at least to him for he had an inkling of what she was trying to suggest to him. Meanwhile, Grisha quietly enjoyed the interaction between the mother and son as he slowly chewed his food. Even he knew what was going through Carla's head. Ever since he had stepped into the house, she kept talking about Eren's new friend and how sweet she was. She talked about how Sasha had praised Eren's and her cooking and also how Eren had acted around Sasha. She was exactly like this in the past whenever Zeke brought his female friend over for study sessions back when he was in high school. That girl had a crush on Zeke but, like Eren, it took more than just being direct with him to know that she liked him. Being quick to read emotions, Carla caught on the girl's admiration for Zeke and tried observing her whenever she came over to their house. After finding out that the girl was a nice person with a kind and loyal personality, Carla began hinting to Zeke to try giving the girl a chance. She was so sure that Zeke saw this girl as someone special, at least more than just a friend. Again, like Eren, he was totally oblivious or maybe he was just pretending that he did not notice Carla's hints. Instead, he told the girl one day that he only saw her as a friend and would always be. The girl just accepted his friendship confession and life went on smoothly between them from high school to university.

"She's nice, isn't she?"

Eren shot her a weird look. His voice crooked as he spoke, "Who's nice?"

"You should bring her over again next time for a meal, or perhaps another gaming session," she continued to speak happily. "I will prepare more delicious food for her!"

"You mean Sasha? You know she's busy all the time, Mum."

Carla leant back against the chair and sighed in disappointment. Unconsciously, Eren let out a soft sigh as well and pulled a chair nearest to him, joining his parents at the table. Seeing his mother's demeanour went from cheerful to slightly down, Eren really felt sorry for what he had said.

Cautiously, he asked, "Why are you upset about it?"

"Your mother is like this whenever someone praises her cooking," remarked Grisha.

Frowning, Carla nudged her husband's arm and said sharply, "What's wrong with wanting to cook for people who appreciate my cooking?"

Her husband did a surrender pose and admitted honestly, "Nope, there's nothing wrong about that."

Carla huffed and crossed her arms. She looked over to Eren who was sitting opposite of her with his head hanging low, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Her eyes softened.

"Eren."

Her son looked up quizzically.

"Do you know, Dear… You looked the happiest when you were playing the game with her just now. It has been a long time since I see you this happy."

"What? No way!" Eren retorted, waving her words away like they were all lies. Was it just him or everyone seem to be saying weird things to him lately? First was Mikasa, then Sasha made that _Jäger_ joke which got him flustered because he looked into it _a little too deeply_ , and lastly, his mother. Or maybe he was the only one being weird.

" _For the next hunting trip?"_

" _Yes! Isn't that what the Jägers do? We are the hunters after all."_

" _I better finish this wonderful charm so I can go on a hunting trip as well. Don't forget to bring me along."_

" _Knowing Sasha, she probably has a crush on a number of cooks who had served her delicious food."_

" _You're so amazing, Eren. Honestly, I didn't know that you can make such an amazing dish."_

 _Oh God, please save me._ Eren inhaled deeply and tugged the collar of his shirt a few times, letting some air to cool the rising heat he was feeling around his neck. He needed to calm himself down from the recollection of those memories.

"There you go again. Your ears are such giveaways," he heard his mother say as she brushed her fingertips against her own earlobe.

Eren gave his mother another weird look and touched his earlobe as well, wondering what was wrong with his ears. Mikasa had mentioned something about his ears before, but he did not really care about it as he thought that she was just making fun of him. This time, he was extremely conscious about how his ears looked to others.

"You're right. His ears," Grisha said with a nod, heightening Eren's consciousness about his pair of ears which he wished he could run to the mirror and check thoroughly for any weird growth or sign. With his fingers, he could only feel warmth radiating from his ears. They were surprisingly warmer than he had always thought they were… or rather, since the last time he touched his ears. To his knowledge, they were not usually that warm. Was he sick? Did the heat spread to his ears? Eren was worried for himself.

"Eyes are the windows to our souls. They speak the deepest secrets only to those who understand the beholder well. But you, Eren…" Carla paused for a moment as she watched the boy in front of her slowly realising what she was trying to say earlier. She smiled tenderly at him and continued, "You may hide some things from us or perhaps you aren't aware of those things yourself, but there is one thing that you can't hide from our eyes."

Eren averted his gaze from his parents.

"Your ears. They turn red when one, you're lying. And two, when you are very, very happy."

 _Nonsense_. He bit his lips uneasily as he continued to look away. Since he was a child, he had always known that he could not get away with lying to his parents and his siblings. They would somehow find out immediately that he was trying to tell a lie and he could not hide the truth any further. His mother would say that his ears were turning red, then pulled his little ear, and demanded the truth. Of course, as he grew older, Carla stopped doing that. One of the reasons was that he rarely hid things from his parents unless it was very personal. Aside from lying, he had no idea that his ears could give away an emotion which he could not bring himself to admit all the time.

"She is a wonderful person, isn't she?"

Not just that. She was more than just wonderful. No matter how silly she was at times, not discounting the fact that she was a glutton, she was more than just someone who could make him smile secretly behind his tough exterior. Furthermore, she could make him speak in ways that were totally out of his character. Eren knew this since the beginning of his first year. She was someone whom he could not help but feel lost in her eyes the first time he had looked at her. The moment their fingers touched, he was greeted with a strange feeling that could not be better described in words if he had to do so. It was like that time he had first looked at the portrait of the huntress. A feeling of longingness and sadness. An intense desire to return something he had stolen back to her, yet having no idea what that was.

But of course, Sasha was more than just someone he was sorry for.

"Sasha… she…" He held himself back, somewhat fearing what he was going to say next. But his parents were looking at him, waiting for his answer, and that pressured him to carry on what he was about to say. The warmth in his cheeks began to grow.

"She…"

He clenched his fists under the table. _Eren, say it. Just admit that you-_

"... is just a friend," he blurted and was immediately stunned by what he had just said. As he stared intensely at his fists resting on his thighs, a feeling of dread bottled up within him.

 _Why…?_

 _Is this why Connie and Jean always call me a mega shithead?_

"Oh my god!" Carla suddenly cried in disbelief as her face fell onto the table. Her hand slapped against Grisha's thigh and shook it. "Why do your sons take after you, Grisha?" Her head shot up and glared at her husband. "Why?!"

Grisha laughed. "Oh, calm down. It's a phase."

"A phase?!"

For the first time in his life, Eren felt like crying and burying himself in a hole because of something he had just said.

-:-:-:-

The weekend had finally arrived. By the end of the club recruitment drive, the Archery Club had gathered more than eighty names of students who were interested to join the club. It was splendid news to the club members, and Sasha could not wait to have junior buddies whom she could be friends with. But first, the club needed a trial session for the applicants before letting them join officially as new club members. The trial session would be held the following week and Sasha was tasked to help her team captain to select and persuade potential archers to join their competitive teams. As this was her first time taking on an assessor role, she was very nervous and wondered if she could fulfil her duty well. As usual, her team captain assured her and said in a slightly joking manner that he had faith in her _gut feeling_ for _good things_. She was not sure what he meant by _good things_ but she guessed, and hoped, that he meant it literally in a good way.

The morning of her weekend started out on a good note with an email received from Hange, inviting her for a job interview. They arranged it on a Monday after her late afternoon lesson. Then, she headed early to the convenience store where she was greeted by Isabel and Farlan, the new full-time workers who worked night shifts. Isabel was a cheerful and optimistic lady in her late twenties, filled with never-ending enthusiasm and motivation to work. Like Levi, she was a serious worker. Although she smiled a lot and had a baby-face, one should not take her innocent look for granted. She could not tolerate nonsense from her customers and would snap at them for being ridiculously rude. Nevertheless, her presence brightened the atmosphere of the store. But, of course, this did not mean that the store was previously boring and dull. It was just that Isabel had the knack for livening up places wherever she went.

On the other hand, Farlan who was also in his late twenties was more level-headed than Isabel and was extremely good at handling both good and difficult customers. He was not a talkative person but he was very friendly and was certainly more approachable than Levi.

When Hannah arrived to work in the morning, Isabel and Farlan would then entrust the store to both Hannah and Sasha before leaving the store. Saturday mornings were usually quite hectic, especially after the new store upgrade was implemented. The store started introducing more goods on the shelf and having weekly promotions. Furthermore, the store had added a table and a few stools at a corner for customers to 'dine in'. In the past, it was always Sasha working alone at the front line on Saturdays but she could manage the workload without much of a problem. Even if there was a problem, Levi would step in and resolve it quickly. With the new schedule implemented, Hannah was assigned to work with Sasha on Saturdays, alternating their roles once every two hours. Sasha was relieved that she did not have to work at the counter alone anymore.

Levi came to work in the late morning, dressed in his uniform polo tee and a pair of black trousers. As usual, he stayed in the storeroom to do his administrative work and instructed Hannah to help him out with the stock check. By then, the morning crowd was reduced and Sasha could handle everything alone again. Having a little 'dine-in' area for customers to preheat and eat their food was the best upgrade in Sasha's opinion although it was very troublesome to clean up the customers' mess after they were done eating. Levi hated the idea very much. Since the 'dine-in' idea boasted the store's revenue, he did not protest against it. But the scary face he put on each time he walked out of the storeroom with a damp cloth spoke a thousand words of annoyance and disgust. Most of the time, the workers would quickly clean the mess up before Levi could see the mess made.

While Sasha was attending to a customer at the cashier counter, three children entered the store, talking very loudly to one another. They were aimlessly walking around the shelves, touching the items and putting them back on the shelves. At first, Sasha did not care about the children and the noise level they were making as they were either checking out the items or just wanted to pass some time in an air-conditioned place. She even noticed Levi taking a short peek outside the storeroom, perhaps wondering why the store suddenly filled with children's loud voices and laughter. Much to her surprise, Levi just closed the storeroom door and let the children enjoy themselves without interfering them.

Just then, a familiar face entered the store with two other friends behind him. He waved to her while the other two taller friends bashfully greeted her. She believed that she had seen them in one of Connie's vlogs although she could not remember who they were. Excited to see Connie visiting her store, Sasha ran to the entrance and threw her arms around his neck. In response, Connie uttered a soft surprise yelp and patted his pal's back.

"Welcome!" she greeted him as she released him. "What brings you and your friends here today?"

"Getting some cans of beer for our upcoming drinking party," Connie replied.

"A drinking party?"

Connie smirked. "Yup, it will be held in my dorm. Actually, it's more like a boys' night, playing games and having fun. Losers chug on the beer."

"Wow. Cool. Just don't get caught for drinking beer, okay?" Sasha said in concern.

"No worries, Sasha. We know how to be discreet." He winked confidently. Then, he turned to his friends standing behind him and started introducing his friends to one another. "So, these are my housemates, Bertholdt and Reiner. They are studying Biochemical Engineering. And guys, this is my best friend Sasha, studying the same course as me."

"Hold on." Sasha pointed at the Reiner and Bertholdt with a bewildered look on her face. "They were the ones who drank our bottled drinks for Eren's party?"

"We're sorry about that, Sasha. We didn't know that Connie bought those drinks for a birthday party," Bertholdt immediately apologised regretfully. "If there's anything you want me and Reiner to make up for those drinks, please let us kno-"

"Nah, it's alright! We're good!" Sasha interjected with a toothy grin.

Bertholdt lowered his head, still feeling guilty for their actions and remembering how Connie freaked out and started panicking in their pantry with tears in his eyes. He even scolded them for taking his things without his permission. He had never seen Connie that anxious and angry before, but that whole incident was obviously his and Reiner's fault and they agreed that they deserved a scolding from Connie.

Reiner spoke up, "We're really sorry, Sasha."

Sasha waved his words away with a relaxed laugh. "Geez. Just drop it. It is over."

"Thank you. You're so nice." Reiner smiled at her. "Oh hey, I watched your archery competition in one of Connie's vlogs. Congrats, girl. Connie was _fangirl-ing_ throughout the video." Without thinking, he gave Connie a quick pat on the head and chuckled.

Connie, who was almost more than one and a half head shorter than Reiner, jumped away and ran his hands on his head many times as if Reiner had just applied some dirt on him. He glared at Reiner and snapped, "What the hell was that for? I didn't _fangirl_! I was doing my job as a commentator!"

Sasha giggled. She had watched his video too and she must say that Connie had done a great job in commenting on almost all her actions, wins, and losses. The way he had commented on the whole competition was interesting and similar to how a commentator in a basketball or soccer competition would do, except for the fact that his comments were entirely focused on her.

"I agree with Reiner. You sound like a big fan of mine, Connie."

"What? There's no way I sounded like that! No, no. I mean, I don't _fangirl_ ," Connie retorted. Then, he rubbed the back of his neck and averted his gaze from Sasha in a bashful manner. He murmured softly, "But I do admit… I sound like a fan cheering you on."

"Thank you, Connie. Don't worry, I'm a big fan of you too!" Sasha said as she also gave her friend a quick pat on his head, earning a warning glare from him as well. She immediately withdrew her arm and grinned cheekily.

"Hey, give me back!" a child's voice suddenly erupted, giving all four of them a fright.

Sasha turned to the children who were still loitering in the store. This time she saw one of them angrily push somebody hidden behind the shelf. Thinking that the children were having their own mini argument, Sasha crossed her arms and sternly called out to the boy who had just pushed his friend, "You there! Don't push each other around."

The boy just looked at her without a look of remorse on his face and then disappeared behind the shelf with his friends. The noise level dropped as the three children began whispering among themselves. Sasha turned to Connie and shrugged sluggishly after noticing his smirk.

"Isn't this a good practice for you to handle little kids? You seem to be doing a great job for quietening them down in a split second," he teased her in a whispering voice.

Sasha rolled her eyes and said, "I did nothing."

Reiner piped, "Fierce."

"No, I am not," she shot back.

As Connie did not want to get Sasha into trouble for chit-chatting during her working hours, he told his housemates to hurry up and choose the beers they wanted to buy from the store. Initially, Sasha thought it was impossible for them to buy alcohol since they were below twenty-one. Closing an eye and letting them buy regardless of the rule might get her into trouble, but she was willing to take the risk since it was her best friend's party with his pals. However, her initial fear ceased immediately after Reiner showed her his identification card with Bertholdt hugging the cans of beers tightly against his chest. Apparently, both Reiner and Bertholdt were a year older than Connie and Sasha. They were at the legal age to enter into bars.

After Reiner had paid for the cans of beers, the three of them left the store. As if on cue, the three children started making lots of noise again. Sasha dropped her shoulders tiredly and let out a long sigh. She really should do something about those kids. Looking at the surveillance television hanging from the ceiling in front of the cashier counter, she could see a girl taking a packet of sweets from the shelf and wave it in front of the boy, making some jokes about it. The boy rudely pushed her hand away and told her to be quiet. The girl blew up her cheeks and deliberately stepped on his shoe, earning a soft cry from the boy. Another boy saw this and started laughing hysterically.

"Stop it, you idiot!" the boy yelled and pushed the girl. "Why do you always have to make fun of me?"

The girl pushed him back and shouted in a high pitched voice, "Because you're an idiot too!"

"Stuuuu-ppiiiiiiidd!" the other boy sang mockingly. Sasha had no clue who he was referring to.

Just like that, the children started pushing one another in between two shelves. On the other lane behind the shelf was another customer looking at the items rather uncomfortably. No doubt that the children's noises were getting out of hand. Angrily, Sasha got out of the counter and made her way to the children. She had never been upset by children before but she really felt the need to stop them and perhaps tell them to leave the store if they were just here to fool around. Just when she was about to reach the lane where the children were, she saw the boy whose face was fuming red with rage and anger grabbed his friends by the shoulders and pushed them against the shelf, causing some of the items to fall on the ground. The other boy groaned and did not surrender to his friend's assault. Using his shoulder to ram against that boy, that boy lost his balance and used his hand to grab onto the shelf.

Unfortunately, the metal shelf moved along with his weight. Watching the shelf tilting towards the children and more items falling off from the shelf, Sasha felt her heart nearly stop in terror and fear. Instinctively, she ran towards the children and pushed them out of the way. It was too late. She could not bring them out of the lane. Being the tallest person among them, the whole shelf toppled on the right side of her body, causing her to fall on her knees while trying to support the shelf. The children fell as well and were lying on the ground, groaning and sobbing.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" the adult customer in the store started screaming in panic. She dropped her handbag and hurriedly went to the children's side and helped Sasha lift up the shelf to free the children.

It was at this moment Levi and Hannah appeared as well. Hannah gasped, looking stunned and terrified by the scene before her. On the other hand, Levi's face darkened. Without saying a word, he went to Sasha's side and helped her to lift up the metal shelf too.

"Are y'all okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Sasha asked the children worriedly while she lifted the shelf up. She noticed that the shelf had barely touched the children due to her tall height. It was a relief that they were not hit. If the shelf had fallen on to their legs, everyone would be in big trouble. What she worried the most was the impact of the children's fall because she had pushed them out of the way.

Thankfully, the children shook their heads and managed to crawl out of the gap between the shelf and the ground with the help of the female customer. Hannah took the children away and made them stand in front of the counter. Sasha could hear her asking the children what had happened and the children started to blame one another for making the shelf fall. When the shelf was finally lifted up from Sasha's body, she felt a sharp pain on her right upper arm just below her shoulder. She hissed in pain and immediately let go of the shelf. Her left hand clutched onto her arm and felt the fabric of the polo tee becoming damper at each passing second. After making sure that the shelf was sitting upright again, Levi squatted next to Sasha and pried her hand away from her arm, revealing a large dark red stain on her sleeve. He frowned. Without further ado, he pulled up her sleeve and saw a small bleeding wound which looked like something had stabbed into the flesh. Obviously, her skin was punctured by the metal edge of the shelf when it had fallen on top of her.

"I will call the ambulance," he said.

Sasha's eyes widened. She shook her head and reassured him, "No, I'm fine. It is just a small cut. It will heal in no time."

"Does this thing look small to you, Braus?"

"Y-Yes, Sir!"

Levi narrowed his eyes at her and said in a low voice, "Unfortunately, it doesn't look small to me. Come with me to the back of the store now. We need to stop the bleeding first."

Sasha nodded hesitantly as she stood up. She saw blood trickling down her arm and began wiping it off with her other hand, smearing the blood across her arm and even onto her polo tee. What seemed like a small cut to her became a horrible sight to look at to the children. The children stared at her with pale faces, probably realising the consequences of their actions. The girl started sobbing again and saying sorry multiple times. They were little kids who were around nine to ten years old, playing around, and had never seen a 'gruesome' scene before in their lives. Of course, Sasha would never blame them for causing her to be injured. If she had not jumped in at the right time, the children would be badly hurt instead. Possibly far worse than her injury.

Levi walked towards the children with an angry look on his face. The children quickly lowered their heads apologetically under his intimidating gaze.

"I'm usually nice to kids but this is unacceptable," he bellowed. "Making a mess in my store… What am I doing to do with you little brats?"

"I'm sorry!" one of the boys cried as he rubbed his palms together in a pleading manner. "I won't do this again."

The other boy sniffed and said in between sobs, "I'm sorry too!"

"Sorry!" the girl bawled her eyes out, mimicking the same pleading action as her friend.

Levi continued to stare hard at them, not affected by the children's apologies and cries. Sasha felt bad after watching the children say their apologies. If only she had stepped in their little argument earlier, she could have prevented them from pushing each other in the store.

"Levi, they have apologised. So, just let them go. I will clean up the mess later," Sasha said.

Her store manager was still unmoved.

"Please?"

Levi glanced at Sasha who was also putting her palms together and giving him the same pleading look like the three children. He shot her a glare and mouthed 'are you out of your mind' to her before turning to look at the little ones again.

"You brats better behave yourselves the next time you come here again. If not, I'm going to call up your schools and your parents. Do you hear me?"

"Yes!" the children said together.

Levi crossed his arms and added sternly, "Good. Now, leave. The store will be temporarily closed for awhile. We will be clearing up the mess you brats have made."

While Hannah led the children out of the store, Levi took Sasha by her wrist and pulled her to the storeroom. Sasha was initially surprised by Levi's sudden close contact but she just quietly followed him. He closed the door and instructed her to take a seat next to his desk filled with files and papers. He then pulled the drawer under the desk and took out a first aid kit. Using an antiseptic, he started cleaning the wound and wiped off the bloodstains on her arm. The antiseptic left a stinging sensation on her wound, but she endured the pain by biting on her lips and holding back her groans. Luckily, it was not a very deep cut which required stitches. But neither was it a minor cut which only required a small plaster. After analysing the wound, he took out a few gauzes and soaked one of them with some medicine that could prevent possible infection.

As he did so, he sighed softly to himself and muttered, "Why do you always end up hurting yourself?"

"Always?" Sasha crooked an eyebrow in puzzlement. She had to admit that she was a little clumsy at times. But as far as she could remember, she did not _always_ end up getting injured like this - at least not to Levi's knowledge since she had known him for only a year and she had never gotten into similar accidents like earlier.

"This is going to hurt for a few minutes," he warned her as he took out a roll of bandages from the kit, ignoring her question and her puzzled stare.

Sasha nodded, still biting her lips with small beads of tears began forming on her lower eyelids. As soon as the gauze touched her wound, her whole body trembled and a soft hiss escaped her lips. Levi immediately withdrew the gauze and muttered an apology. He looked extremely uncomfortable treating her wound and Sasha guessed that it was the blood that grossed him out. For the second time within two months, she ended up being a mess in front of Levi and he had to clean up the mess for her. First was her vomit, and second was her blood. What an embarrassment.

"It's okay. Go on. Let's get this over and done with," Sasha said as she took the gauze from his hand and pressed it against the wound.

The bridge of her nose crinkled at the sharp stinging pain on her arm. She mentally kept telling herself that the pain would get better once she got used to the medicine, so she held on and waited for Levi to wrap the bandage around her arm to secure the gauze. Seeing the gauze beginning to be stained red, Sasha knew that she had to replace it with a cleaner gauze in a few hours time. While Levi was wrapping the bandage around her upper arm, Sasha silently watched his hand movements. It reminded her of how Eren had tried to secure the armguard around her arm but his trembling fingers made it harder to do so. However, Levi was different. His fingers were steady and the way he managed to successfully hook the clip on the bandage without much difficulty proved that he was very experienced in first aid. Moreover, the way his gentle fingers wrapped around her arm while trying to secure the clip against the bandage gave her a feeling of déjà vu - the same foreign memory she once had on Eren's birthday.

 _A room with only two people. One was sitting on a stool with her injured arm outstretched while the other lowered his upper body to match her eye level._

 _"You are so careless. I can't believe I have to do this for you. What a brat."_

 _One was injured while the other was wrapping a bandage around her arm. His gentle fingers brushed against her skin as he tried to secure the bandage with a tiny clip._

Sasha smiled at the familiar memory again. It was the same as before and she wondered when that had happened and who she was with in that memory. Looking at Levi who was reaching out for the second clip in the kit, Sasha's smile became wider and she leant slightly forward towards him.

"Levi."

He gave her a quick glance before bringing his focus back on the bandage again. "What?"

"So… you are actually nice to children," she remarked in a teasing tone.

Levi narrowed his eyes at her and grunted, "Most of the time, yes. Even if they are so bratty that it gets on my nerves."

Sasha let out a soft giggle. Hannah and Franz had once mentioned to her that Levi had treated a kid to a free meal in their store and he even added other ingredients for the kid so that he would not go hungry for the rest of the day. They were always saying that Levi was always looking out for small kids who were poor and could not afford a meal whenever he was outside. Even when a child accidentally spilt her soda in the store, Levi just let the matter go and got her another soda for free. He was not the type to show his warmth in an explicit manner but anyone who had known him for a long time could instantly tell that he had gone a little softer behind that cold mask whenever he was around children. Sasha never had the chance to see him act so kindly towards children but she guessed that she finally did.

"Stop giving me that stupid smile, Braus. I'm really angry right now," she heard Levi chide her in an irritated voice.

 _"Stop smiling like a dunce. I'm really angry now."_

 _Wait…_

Frozen, Sasha stared wide-eyed at him as something lit up at the back of her mind. A sudden rush of nostalgia overcame her once more. Somehow, everything seemed to be repeating itself. Even if the voice and the scene in her head had really happened before at some point in her life, she just could not make sense of them earlier. But the exact repetition of the scene before her eyes momentarily appeared to shed some light on those memories she had always been seeing.

"Captain?" she blurted in a rather shocked, questioning manner. At this very moment, it kind of made sense to her. Finally, or rather, at the very least. The word just spilt out of her mouth like it was the most natural thing to say after _all these years_.

But to Levi, it did not make any sense at all. His hands froze as he slowly lifted his head up and stared into her hazel brown eyes, confused and flabbergasted.

 _Unfortunately, this very moment of knowing and reunion lasted for a brief second before her candlelight was blown out once more_.

* * *

 **Eren's and Sasha's interaction during their gaming session is literally like how Jun and I interacted when we played AOT 2 game. I would be the one running away as soon as I saw a group of titans leap towards me while Jun would be nagging at me for running away all the time. But I later got used to the controls and became a little braver. :D**

 **Please note that the _Attack on Titan_ game in this story is different from the real AOT 2 game. There is no Captain Bruce in the real game and no multiplayer function in the offline mode.**

 **Before I end this note, I would like to thank** _Shiranai Atsune_ **,** _Jasper lux_ **,** **and** _Lady Serai_ **for reviewing the previous chapter.**

 **Preview of Chapter 21:**

 _"People die in battles," he stated bluntly. It was the truth anyway._

 _"I know."_

 _"Then, why?"_

 _"B-Because Captain Levi, you…" Her voice crooked again. Her tears which were threatening to fall since earlier left her eyes and formed a steady stream down her cheeks. "... cannot be replaced."_

 **The next chapter is one of my favourites :3  
** **See you next time!**


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